Well. I had some ideas planned for the next two columns, but of course on Friday we got the news that the most elderly and infirm Supreme Court Justice, and the last barrier to Trumpnik judicial supremacy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has died, less than two months before the election.
How does one react.
Well… my first thought was, anybody who thought 2020 couldn’t get more 2020, here we are.
Second thought: Quit being cute with posting reminders on social media about when Mitch (the Bitch) McConnell heard of Antonin Scalia’s death and demanded to hold up the Supreme Court nomination over half a year before November 2016 because American voters deserved to have a choice in the outcome. You think he cares about that now that he’s got the advantage? Are you seriously – even sarcastically – suggesting that McConnell should be held to his principles? Mitch McConnell has no principles for living besides “I’m Mitch McConnell, and I can do any damn thing I want, and you can’t do a thing in Hell to stop me. Now lemme get a cup so I can drink your liberal tears.”
Third thought: And liberals, quit wailing and whining and crying about this being the downfall of democracy. The reason that “conservatives”, despite manifestly failing to uphold their own standard of Alpha-Male fitness, continue to think of you as a bunch of passive, weakling Untermenschen who can be pushed around and exploited at will is because you so deeply embrace the stereotype.
And on a related subject: Those of you bitching about “both sides” and third-party voters and telling us “I wish I could punch you right now,” well, fuck you too. National majority voting is not how it works in the Electoral College system, as if you don’t KNOW it, and if you STILL haven’t figured that out 20 years after Bush vs. Gore, that ain’t my fault if you didn’t try to change the rules or even fucking learn them. I would cry more about voting third-party if it actually cost Clinton my state, which it didn’t. If anything, it cost Trump Nevada. If there were no Electoral College, you wouldn’t have to bitch about how three million more votes didn’t make Clinton president, but as of now, dirt DOES vote, and if you want to do something about that, live in the world that you have now, not the one you thought you had.
Because as I’d said at the time, if the fate of all Western civilization hinges on assuming that people are going to vote for Hillary Clinton, the system really isn’t as stable as we thought. If the fate of jurisprudence relies on assuming that we always have the right president to appoint justices and the right justices never die of old age, the system really isn’t as stable as we thought. And given that we now have a bunch of rat-lickers calling the coronavirus a hoax, refusing to wear masks, and refusing to take a vaccine even if it DOES come out, we clearly have a bunch of problems that no election is going to solve, and a second President Clinton would probably have just been a Band-Aid on our philosophical gut wound, as Obama turned out to be.
So again: Focus on where you are now. As Senator Blutarsky said, nothing is over until WE say it is.
Mitch the Bitch told his troops (not wasting any time) that “For those of you who are unsure how to answer, or for those inclined to oppose giving a nominee a vote, I urge you all to keep your powder dry. This is not the time to prematurely lock yourselves into a position you may later regret.” Well, he probably thinks he can afford to say that because polls (prior to Friday) showed him with a commanding lead against Democrat challenger Amy McGrath. A lot of his caucus aren’t so lucky. Like, say, Lindsey Graham. And I would predict this much, Susan Collins is gone.
The Party of Trump’s best chance of pulling this off (as in, their best strategy for doing what they want anyway without begging more negative consequences) is to schedule a Senate vote after the election in the lame-duck period, since if Trump is re-elected the political consequences won’t matter, and if he’s defeated the political consequences of a new SCOTUS appointment will be overshadowed by Trump’s declaration, “You know, I’ve decided this whole ‘democracy’ thing is very mean and unfair to me, cause it says ‘Democrat’ right in there, so I’ve declared myself President For Life, which is forever, because I’ve also signed an Executive Order to make myself immortal and unkillable. Also, now my motorcycle can fly.”
And on that score, it has been noted in several places that if Martha McSally (the interim Senator to fill Arizona Senator John McCain’s term) loses her race to Democrat John Kelly, Arizona law means that Kelly would be sworn in by November 30, before the rest of the Congress in 2021.
Now, in conclusion: I know that despite Justice Ginsburg’s long history of ill health and struggle with cancer, this news is a huge shock to many. I know that a lot of people are feeling very dis-spirited and depressed right now.
Guess who’s got two thumbs and doesn’t care? THIS GUY. It doesn’t matter how you feel, liberals. It matters what you DO. If you learn nothing else from the Right, learn that. After all, who’s in power right now? You have to get up and move. If you truly think “conservatives” are ruthless evil bastards, then quit wallowing in emotion and quit expecting ruthless evil bastards to give you a break. Cause they WON’T. Not just because they’re a bunch of projecting paranoids who think you’re just as Evil and horrible as you say they are, but because they really are that damn sadistic and would be grinding your necks into the dust even if they didn’t think the future of Western civilization was at stake. After all, it’s been at least 2000 years and Jesus could be coming back any day now.
I changed my registration to Democratic, I volunteered for phone banks, I’ve volunteered for more (including November 3) and I’m voting early. For Biden-Harris. So do YOUR job. If everybody who says they hate Donald Trump actually voted against him, he’d be toast. We’re going to need numbers, sheer fucking numbers, to make sure Viceroy Trump can’t just whine his way out of accepting the results.
I saw all those people gathering outside the Supreme Court building to honor RBG. That’s a great sign. That shows you some people know what the stakes are. But that’s the District of Columbia, and the only person in DC who’s voting Trump is Trump, and he’s doing it with a Florida absentee ballot. We need that kind of turnout, IN the right states, to make it count on Election Day.
As Barack Obama, the closest thing to a good president we’ve had in a while, said on the subject:
“Don’t boo, vote.”