Dem messaging on this SCOTUS opening is a loser. As always, it's reactive logic, seeking to apply new "McConnell rule" based on GOP refusal to consider Merrick Garland nomination. It’s transparently facetious. 1/13
No one is fooled by this. Rs are going to confirm any Federalist Society fruitcake anyway. They don’t care about hypocrisy and bad faith. 2/13
Worse, it expresses a desperate yearning for a norm-based political order that is not coming back from the dead. The new rules are: no SCOTUS picks if you don’t hold the Senate. Dems should embrace that and just be honest. Rs produced this new world with Garland behavior. 3/13
Even worse! What’s the message going to be if we don’t runner-runner the Senate this Fall? Dems are long-shots at best to take back the chamber. If they don’t, are they going to play ball on the next SCOTUS opening? 4/13
Instead of invoking a mythical McConnell Rule that no one is going to adhere to, Dems should be making the case for wholesale reform of the way SCOTUS openings happen, and should be making threats about what happens the next time they are in power. 5/13
Best way to think about the nonsense lottery leading to lifetime tenure on SCOTUS is this: If Thomas retires and something happens to Ginsburg and Breyer, Trump could appoint THE ENTIRE MAJORITY on SCOTUS in his first term. 6/13
SCOTUS openings must be routinized if we are ever to end the court wars. Carter got zero in 4 years. Trump has two in 18 months. 7/13
What we need is the law recommended by @FixtheCourt, which caps service on SCOTUS at 18 years and gives every president the right to two picks per four year term. If that law is deemed unconstitutional, we need a constitutional amendment. In the meantime: war. 8/13
The next Dem president, in her inaugural speech, should give Neil Gorsuch 7 days to resign, or SCOTUS will be packed with the number of justices required to produce the liberal majority that was stolen from us in 2016. 9/13
Dem partisans and activists don’t want to hear about fucking norms and informal rules right now.
The norms are dead.
The norms are dead.
The norms are dead. 10/13
The norms are dead.
The norms are dead.
The norms are dead. 10/13
They want to hear what Dem leaders are going to do about it if and when they ever get back into power. You want your GOTV volunteers running around talking about the MCCONNELL RULE? Or do you want to put a message about real fairness and real reform out there? 11/13
Do you want to beg the Republicans to act fairly and in good faith? Or do you want to have a plan for when they inevitably shred norms to entrench conservative power for another generation? 12/13
For more, see my recent book for @melvillehouse, that has a court-packing plan, recommendations for how to get to 58 states and parity in the Senate, a Modern Voting Rights Act and more. static.mhpbooks.com/fight-dirty/ 13/13
