The phenomenon Matt describes here — activists refusing to celebrate half-measures — is a fascinating contrast with how satisfied conservatives are by Trump. He didn’t deliver on killing the ACA so they just agreed to stop caring about that.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1343898714780397568
Part of this asymmetry is that conservatives are happy to control courts if it means they’ll get wins/block the left eventually, and progressives are more focused on passing big legislation. The irony being that conservatives accuse *the left* of needing courts to do their work.
And it’s not like left-wing politicians don’t try! In 2016, when he made his final surrogate stops for Clinton, Sanders emphasized that she could appoint a justice who’d overturn Citizens United. Protest voters didn’t care, even though that was absolutely their only shot at CFR.
But the ACA thing is a good example and suggests that conservative outrage is often untethered from outcomes. They *had majorities on record for repeal* and couldn’t pull it off. And they just stopped caring and let Ken Paxton sue over the mandate in the hope he gets lucky.
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