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Should a Supreme Court seat open up, President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have five months to jam through another conservative. If the next available seat is vacated by one of the liberal justices, then their new appointee could cement the nine-member court’s conservative tilt for decades to come.
Few Democrats want to talk about the possibility of a liberal vacancy. After all, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the oldest justice at age 87, is an icon who broke through gender barriers to become one of the most influential and committed progressive voices on the Supreme Court in history. As a proud owner of a “Notorious RBG” shirt, I get it. But remember, she and Justice Stephen Breyer, another liberal member of the court in his 80s, cannot be justices forever.
And if Republicans are talking about this, Democrats should be, too.
I was the communications director in the White House when then-President Barack Obama nominated Garland. We naively thought that someone who had been confirmed to the DC Court of Appeals with 76 votes in the Senate would face some opposition — but would ultimately be confirmed.
Clearly, we were wrong. McConnell was not going to let that happen. Not only did Garland not get a hearing, he barely had any meetings with Republicans.
Democrats have every right to still be bitter about this. I still am.
Democrats should be clear that confirmation of another Trump judge could be the death knell of the Affordable Care Act, which Trump is currently asking the Supreme Court to overturn. In other words, they should make this vote the 2020 version of the ACA-repeal votes that contributed to the downfall of so many Republican members of Congress in 2018.
Anyone voting to confirm a Trump nominee is voting to kick tens of millions of Americans off their health care in the middle of a pandemic that’s reminding families everywhere how important access to care really is.
And Democrats should not let Senate decorum get in the way. It’s basic campaign 101 — when a candidate is down, you don’t let up. You deliver the clear knockout punch.
Finally, Democrats can’t hem and haw for weeks. Democratic Senate candidates should announce the stakes of this election immediately and begin to mobilize grassroots opposition, putting vulnerable Senate Republicans in the hot seat.
No one on the Democratic side wants to be fighting a conservative replacement to Ginsburg, perhaps because they want her to live forever. But preserving her legacy also means being prepared for the fight. And if Graham and McConnell are getting ready, Democrats must be, too.
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