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14 Oct, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Less sure about this @michaelbd piece, though I agree with him that Roberts's Obamacare ruling was too clever by half.
nationalreview.com/2020/10/robert…
Any critique of Roberts has to acknowledge that he really has maintained the court's public prestige at a time when no other institution has much:
news.gallup.com/poll/4732/supr…
And Barrett, I suspect, benefits from that cautious project; the polls showing plurality support for her nomination may reflect a (relative) trust in the court as well as a favorable response to the nominee herself.
And all of that, in turn, creates real political impediments to court-packing in a Biden presidency -- maybe not insuperable, but at least some protections that may owe at least something to Roberts' political trimming.
Put another way: I can imagine a world where Roberts made different (better) rulings and also preserved the prestige of the court, but it's not clear to me his strategy has made court-packing more likely, or his own position worse.

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More from @DouthatNYT

Ross Douthat Profile picture
1 Oct
The fact that Trump isn't on Twitter and Fox and Friends every day pressuring Congressional Rs to make a big-number deal with Democrats says a lot about why his brand of right-populism is likely headed to defeat rather than re-election:
To return to this @SohrabAhmari tweet, what's hard about building a "Red Toryism" (or, if you will, a "Sam's Club Republicanism") is that GOP stakeholders aren't interested. Trump once ran against them; now their inaction is tanking his re-election.
One reason "populists nearly always win a second term" in other countries is that they shift the right's econ policies to make them more, well, popular. Trump has done that a little, but not enough, and the delayed Covid relief is just insane malpractice.
Read 4 tweets
Ross Douthat Profile picture
24 Sep
I'm going to stick with the same assessment till the last: Trump is unfit and proves it every day, but he's incapable of an authoritarian coup and in the event of a FL-in-2000 tipping-point-state tie, his toxic rhetoric only makes him more likely to lose the post-election battle.
This take is the more plausible one, but under the same set of Bush-v-Gore-style facts that would lead John Roberts to rule for a normal Republican, he is less likely to rule for Trump.
Ditto for the two, maybe soon three, Trump-appointed justices: Every time the president opens his mouth, he makes it less likely that Gorsuch or Kavanaugh rules for him on a set of facts where they might rule for a President Pence or Rubio or Hawley.
Read 4 tweets
Ross Douthat Profile picture
21 Sep
It's a "lasting" disadvantage that has currently lasted for six years (since the last Dem Senate majority) or ten (since the last time Dems had a supermajority), and it may not outlast 2020.
The Senate's rural bias disadvantages a very specific Democratic Party ideological formation that has existed since the middle of the Obama presidency.
The electoral college, meanwhile, disadvantages the Democratic Party formation that existed in 2016, but not the formation that existed in 2012, 2008 or 2004.
Read 4 tweets
Ross Douthat Profile picture
17 Sep
Wherever you stand on Enlightenment rollback, this from @DamonLinker gives too much credence to a Whig-history interpretation of the relationship between modern liberalism and modern science.
theweek.com/articles/93761…
There is clearly some relationship between liberalism, science and secularism, but sustained Western technological progress starts in the Middle Ages, and the Scientific Revolution happens amid Reformation and Counter-Reformation; Lockean liberalism is more its child than father.
An alternative timeline: Catholic Christendom >> technological progress; tech progress >>> tech-driven break-up of Christendom (thanks a lot, Gutenberg); break-up >>> liberalism's promise of religious truce; liberalism takes credit for continuing progress to legitimize its rule.
Read 4 tweets
Ross Douthat Profile picture
11 Sep
Tenet, boy, I don't know.
Definitely Nolan's most avant-garde work: The movie's aggressive contempt for the casual viewer's desire for understanding is something to behold.
Also a little amusing that the movie that's supposed to save theater-going has a story that most people will only be able to parse if they watch it on TV with subtitles on.
Read 4 tweets
Ross Douthat Profile picture
10 Sep
One more thread on the proper baseline for thinking about the US death toll, because I hadn't seen this from @germanrlopez when I wrote yesterday's thread.
vox.com/future-perfect…
Lopez argues that my case for regional rather than global baselines was flawed because I didn't discuss Canada. Fair! But then he just discards the idea of a regional baseline and opts for a general developed-country baseline instead.
But as I argued in the column, regional differences just look much, much more important than country-by-country comparisons. For instance, here's the US compared to a very-heterogenous group of Pacific countries:
Read 13 tweets

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