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dmk's avatar

Although it is true that pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:8), I don't think GInsburg is responsible for the major battle that will take place over her SCOTUS replacement. Rather, I believe what is responsible is that the Supreme Court for the last 50 years has regularly issued rulings based on the judges political views rather than the letter of the law. Consequently, Chief Justice Roberts' statement that there are no Obama judges and no Trump judges is complete hogwash and both political parties know it.

Our country landed at this point in time because of the set of Republicans who let the Democrats change the courts from a set of judges who issued rulings based upon the Constitution to a court system dedicated to implementing new laws in direct opposition to the Constitution. The failure of the Republicans to stop the politicization of the courts over the last 50 years has allowed the Democrats to implement laws that would never have passed Congress and allowed the Democrats to effectively change the Constitution without the need for a legal amendment.

Starting with the Democrats filibuster of Rehnquist in 1968, the Democrats have made clear that they are playing to win the right to control the courts at all costs, with the smear jobs of Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh being prime examples of how low they will go in an attempt to win the game. The Democrats appear willing to tear down the country because of the consequences of losing an election. But if elections don't determine the political control of our country, we have already ceased to be the country we were founded to be.

I don't believe in a play-to-lose strategy. I think that is folly from both a Biblical and a political perspective. There probably are Senators in the GOP coalition who might prefer to attempt to try to save their own electoral skin by compromising with the Democrats rather than supporting a judicial nominee dedicated to returning the courts to issuing rulings based on the Constitution.  But the GOP Senators that previously fell into that category share at least part of the blame for how we got into this judicial mess to begin with.

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NotSoCommonSense's avatar

The GOP cannot let Democratic threats of violence stop them from fulfilling their Constitutional prerogative to nominate and confirm a replacement for RBG. I'd be fine with having the final vote after election day if that makes some Republicans more comfortable, but there's no need to delay hearings. The Democrats are going to do whatever they want if they win the Senate regardless of this confirmation, so the only option now is the move forward. If some GOP senators want to abstain from voting to protect their seats, then fine, just don't get in the way.

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