Thread by @SethAbramson

I'm finding it hard to care about the Barrett hearings because (1) the only meaningful option Democrats had was to try to stop them from happening, and they let them happen, (2) Barrett can and will make her own recusal decisions, (3) credentials are immaterial in the Trump era.

The calculus was—and is—simple: it was—and is—an obscenity that the nomination is going forward at this historical moment and on this timeline, but the moment it did go forward, the hearings became mere theater. No one cares about her credentials. Either she has the votes or not.

Is it possible Democrats will suddenly unearth something big about about Barrett? Sure—but that could come out as easily in the news as via hearings, and if GOP senators wouldn't convict Trump on overwhelming evidence, why would they block Barrett due to some big new revelation?

The purpose of the hearings becomes, then, to rile up one's base while not riling up the other party's base. But the GOP has the big advantage here, because by holding the hearings they're riling up their base, and by refusing to try to block them Democrats are depressing theirs.

Fact: no U.S. senator can persuade a SCOTUS Justice on recusal. Justices do whatever they want on recusal, and usually—these days—for partisan reasons. And if a voter doesn't know the issues that are at stake in this election...are they really someone who's watching this hearing?

The Democrats had *two* options: 1) be Gandalf ("You shall not pass!"), (2) spend two weeks using these hearings as as an earned-media advertisement for the Democratic agenda—even as the hearings happening in the first place underscores that agendas are meaningless without power.

I don't like dramatic irony. I don't like being manipulated into caring about an event whose outcome is predetermined. These hearings are a farce. Amy Barrett could be *Jack the Ripper* and if Trump commanded the GOP to confirm her, it would do so. This is all risible stagecraft.

If I were the Democrats, I would've boycotted the hearings if there wasn't a way to stop them. Make history; make the news; make a statement; make a stand; make it clear that the event is outside normal business and will be rectified by future acts the moment the GOP loses power.

But no politician gives up a chance to be on camera—and the Democrats rarely miss an opportunity to normalize the Republicans' full-scale assault on our democracy by actively participating in the intermittent pageants the Republicans schedule to celebrate their attack on America.