Generally, elections come down to the issues important to voters and a feeling about the candidate him/herself.
The Democratic and Republican parties have issues that are in their DNA, such as a woman’s right to choose for the former and law & order for the latter.
But maybe the biggest issue on the ballot this year is one we usually associate with an individual and not a party.
Character.
Candidates point to the imperfections of their rival candidates—it is the essence of campaigning to highlight your strengths and aim to exploit your opponents weaknesses.
But in 2020, more than any other year, it is the collective action of the parties more than individuals that seem to be front and center.
National issues dominating the races are debated with no common ground—the Russia probe being fake news even as U.S. intelligence agencies agree that Putin is attempting to meddle in our elections again in 2020, protests surrounding police reform that morph into questions about defunding the police, and who is more responsible for the success and failures of the nations coronavirus response, federal or state leaders.
But nothing crystallizes the question of character more than the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice with the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. When you cut through all the arguments of when should the seat be filled, the simple fact remains that Republicans in the Senate have gone back on their word in order to please President Donald Trump.
The Republican stance in 2016, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was to not consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland with nearly a year left in President Barack Obama’s presidency, insisting the voters should be heard first. GOP officials now claim their position is consistent because their objections in 2016 were based in part on the fact the White House and Senate were controlled by opposite parties.
Giving the benefit of the doubt, then how to explain GOP senators, including the now chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham in 2018, more recent statements saying they would not fill a vacancy this election year?Â
But now, even as public polling by a roughly 60-40 margin shows those same voters wanting the vacancy to remain until the Nov. 3 election is decided, Sens. McConnell and Graham are full steam ahead to install President Trump’s nominee on the highest bench in the land with the only objections in the party from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.
No matter how much Joe Biden says it, the Republican party fever will not break if Donald Trump is defeated. The modern-day Republican party, the party of Lincoln, is now the party of Donald Trump and will continue to be even after his time in office is over.
It should be noted that Collins and Murkowski have made statements against the timing of this nomination, but no commitment as to how they’ll vote on it. I would be astonished if they did not fall into the Trumpublican party line.
Well, I guess your publication is a partisan Democrat organ. That’s okay, but be transparent about your biases. All politics is hypocritical. Republicans are no less and no more hypocritical than Democrats. If the situation were reversed, you KNOW that Democrats would be pushing to get a nominee confirmed before the election. That’s actually the job of a President and Senate. When they are of the same party, it is likely that a nominee can and will be confirmed (19 times during election years) When they are of different parties, it is likely that a nominee won’t be confirmed during an election year — letting the electorate break the gridlock — as happened twice.
The situation WAS reversed just four excruciatingly long years ago, Robert. McConnell bottled up President Obama’s nomination hiding behind a mountain of pompous, grandiose and thoroughly inauthentic bullroar. But when the Democrats now object to ramming through a nomination in 1/5 the time, one that could alter the course of the country for decades, Republicans’ piousness takes a 180-degree turn. Not quite fair, wouldn’t you say? Or does “fairness” only apply to Republicans and the rest of us, the majority of the country, be hanged?
No, you have the history wrong. When the Senate and President are of the same parties, in 19 instances the nominee was confirmed during an election year. And when the Senate and President were of different parties, nominees were not confirmed during election years. That was McConnell’s position in 2016. Try this analysis: https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-succession-battle-shows-hypocrisy-is-an-enduring-norm-11600729816.
There is nothing in the Constitution or any law that states that a Supreme Court Justice nominee cannot be confirmed in an election year if the president and senate are of different parties. Obama had the constitutional right to nominate Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court vacancy after Scalia’s death but McConnell chose to not give him the courtesy of a hearing alleging that it is an election year and the people should decide. That vacancy remained vacant for almost a year. Now, with the election less than 2 months away and early voting beginning, McConnell wants to ram through Trump’s nominee because it is Trump’s constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court Justice when a vacancy occurs. Funny how McConnell and Trump turn things around to fit their narrative. There is no danger whatsoever in waiting until after the election. If Trump wins, then they can confirm his nominee. If he loses, then the gracious thing would be to let the new president make the nomination but they won”t do that because they want a strict conservative majority on the Court so that their priorities get passed,
All Trump supporters should not only have their kids taken, they shouldn’t raise or breed kids, or even vote. Ever. They should do only menial jobs 14x7x365, their wills should be nullified, their money sent to the state or victims of their crimes, they should donate blood and tissue regularly, plus all organs upon death, strictly for the benefit of the sane, mature, intelligent and caring, and until death they should also be guinea pigs for drug and medical experiments, bypassing 10 years of animal testing!
To Robert: any president of any party with a vacancy on SCOTUS should have his (or her) nominee considered. President Obama was illegally hamstrung and blocked, in my considered opinion. Thus Trump, with a much closer lag time, should not be allowed to have his pick, either. This is fundamental fairness. But since it appears that Trump has just been revealed as a common criminal (the tax return revelation that just broke) maybe it will help ensure that we indeed get a new president and new Senate majority in 2021.
The GOP is no longer a party, but a cult; very wealthy racists oligarchs (think fall of the USSR) who have fleeced the government & its people for a century (mis) leading the poor & working class into believing OTHER poor & working class (the others) are stealing from them. Donald just put some glitter, loud music & titties into the mix then sweetened it by taking it out of the shadows. Racism? Fraud? Outright theft? It’s all good in Trumplandia, because we’ve been treated SO unfairly!
Which is why the Republican party, as it now stands, has to be outvoted by a large margin. Not just in 2020, but 2022 and 2024 and every election going forward. As you say, they have shown exactly what is in their character, as do their supporters. The days of civil discourse are long gone, instead name calling and personal attacks are the norm. But voters need to get past their apathy — they DO have the power to make a change, and it is critical that they exercise their right. This regime’s attacks on voting and the election are a desperate attempt to suppress the vote, and that cannot be allowed to happen. In all likelihood, this nominee will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, if not before the election, then most certainly in the lame duck session that follows. Democrats need to have a plan in place to counteract that. But what it comes down to is — VOTE!!