Thread by @raywert

An open thread to @chuckschumer on the Senate Dems Supreme Court strategy:

1/15

With Romney’s support, we now know Trump will nominate and we know McConnell will hold a vote on the nominee. The only question really is — do they vote for the nominee before the election or after?

2/15

The answer? It doesn’t matter. There’s no functional difference to whether the vote passes.

3/15

Pre-election, they have the votes, and McConnell and Senate Republicans will confirm whoever Trump nominated.

4/15

Post-election, if Trump wins, McConnell and Senate Republicans will confirm whoever he nominated.

If Trump loses, even — actually, ESPECIALLY — if there is a 2018 style blue wave, McConnell and Senate Republicans will confirm whoever he nominated.

5/15

Given McConnell’s lies to the American public, and the illegitimacy of the process, the only outcome for Dems to battle them on that playing field is to lose. So why fight there?

6/15

The answer is you don’t. You can’t win. So don’t play their game. Instead, unify around one message: “Republicans must respect the will of the American people or the process is a sham, and this institution is broken. We refuse to participate. The system must be fixed.”

7/15

Now here’s the hard part. You’ll have to let the Republicans do it. Don’t attend committee hearings, don’t stall the process, don’t waste time. Don’t even show up to vote. Let the sham process occur.

8/15

The goal is actually to make it easy for them to take the vote now, before the election, in order to hold Senate Republicans accountable for their dishonesty and lack of respect for the American people.

9/15

Simultaneously, send Senators home, and send them and members not up for re-election out to campaign. Focus entirely on winning the Senate because it’s the only way to fix the institution.

10/15

Your only goals are:

Pre-Election:
Win. The. Senate.

Post-Election:
Fix. The. Senate.

11/15

We’ve found ourselves with a system that allows the minority to jam their agenda down the throats of the majority of the American people by functionally high-jacking 1.5 of our three branches of government. We need to re-balance the Senate with DC and PR statehood.

12/15

We also need to cancel out the harms that have been caused by the minority party by temporarily expanding the Supreme Court by two justices.

13/15

These aren’t meant to be punitive or a consequence to the Republicans for disingenuously lying to the American people and playing partisan games. These actions would be meant to restore faith in the institution and fix the system.

14/15

To sum it up again:

Win. The. Senate.

and

Fix. The. Senate.

15/15