New SCOTUS Judge II: The Wrath of Kavanaugh

[The Big Dog]

A hypocritical dick, too.

And a justice of the United States Supreme Court.

 

[Minoosh]

The drunken douchebag did not get a raw deal. He was asked questions. That is all. It is part of advice and consent to explore the backgrounds of candidates for the court. I know you think it is their jobs to rubber stamp whatever Trumpturd says or does, but the Constitution doesn't see it that way.

I just want to say, your tone strikes me as one of the most sensible in the thread. Firm, and not panicked.

 

[Minoosh]

And a justice of the United States Supreme Court.

I was referring to McConnell as a dick. Just clarifying.

 

[Elagabalus]

...It literally didn't even matter who won, in policy terms; yet even on this board tempers are flaring because the dystopian posters are calling the more measured ones enablers of a white supremacist agenda.

Meh, at least we know who will being manning the pitchforks when the time comes and which ones will be sitting it out due to some pathetic excuse of not wanting to go down to that level.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

That's funny, I've heard the opposite.

Maybe if we all spent less time bitching about the other side and more time discussing with them, with the intent of finding common ground and compromises, things would be better?

Pretty hard to do when the Republicans won't compromise on anything.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

And I predict that on reproductive rights, if it comes to it, private groups will be in place to give all women access to family planning services, including abortion. I sure as heck don't think that Americans in general are against contraception. There may be a few, but all in all I think just about everyone wants to make abortion as rare as possible and wants all babies to be fervently wanted.

Meanwhile there surely will be people who will resent the SC for not going far enough and not being willing/able to roll back all national gains in safe access to abortion. "Conservatives" will be attacking other "conservatives" who don't pass some ideological test.

Conservatives in some states have shut down Planned Parenthood clinics or made it hard for them to function. They don't all want to see contraception easy to obtain. They want anyone not married to suffer consequences for having sex. They want abstinence only. Gawd knows why.

 

[Aridas]

We'll never know for sure what the effect will be, but I know the Republicans are crowing about how poll numbers have changed since the hearings.

It's obviously too soon to deal with the aftermath, but... here's a take on the recent state of things from a rather progressive site.

Or, if you don't feel like going through that, here's a final overall summary.

This week’s bottom lines

There is a definitive tick in the GOP’s direction. However, it’s not breaking any of the ranges that the various metrics have been trading in all cycle. It’s annoying to see things fluctuate away from us, but I don’t think it’s time to panic yet.

The media is overhyping this, in my opinion. They are repeating the EXACT mistakes from 2016 that the Associated Press advised them NOT to do — taking a single poll as significant over aggregates, reporting metrics without context, and misrepresenting what probabilities suggest. Sigh.

 

[Minoosh]

Meh, at least we know who will being manning the pitchforks when the time comes and which ones will be sitting it out due to some pathetic excuse of not wanting to go down to that level.

I'm not getting what was supposedly such a big turnoff regarding the Democrats' behavior. But if it struck someone that way, I'm not going to call his "excuse" pathetic.

In a way, both sides got what they wanted out of this confirmation process. I think people wringing their hands over the supposed bad behavior of the Democrats are going to be more than offset by people who thought it was long overdue.

 

[acbytesla]

I just want to say, your tone strikes me as one of the most sensible in the thread. Firm, and not panicked.

I'm not sure what good panicking would do.

Even though I see him as unfit, I think he's worth more to the Democrats alive then dead. I expect further investigations into Kavanaugh's background and you never know what they might find looking into this guy. It could easily backfire on the Republicans like Abe Fortas did on LBJ.

And while I don't think someone with Kavanaugh's lack of integrity and obvious partisanship should be on the court, any right wing appointee would probably be a threat to my values. So in the world where Trump is President and the Senate is controlled by Republicans this might just be perfect for the Democrats.

I'm also somewhat comforted by the simple fact that justices sometimes temper their partisanship once on the court. Not always but sometimes.

The end of the world may be coming. but I'm still alive. I can take solace in that.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

The world is not about to end.

No one said it was.

We were sure that Ronald Reagan was going to cause America to be destroyed, and since it was the Cold War era, we meant that literally. We survived.

Ever read the book, Blowback?

GHWB was just a continuation, but then Clinton was elected, and oh but there was wailing and gnashing of teeth from the other side. He surely would destroy America. He didn't.

I recall the GOP doing everything they could to **** up the Clinton administration the same way McConnell did everything he could to **** up Obama's.

So now Kennedy is gone and Kavanaugh is in, assuming nothing truly dramatic happens today, and even if it does, someone like Kavanaugh is in. Abortion rights are in jeopardy. Do you know what that means? It means politicians will actually have to be open about their stance on abortion. For the entire lifetime of most Americans it has been a back burner issue because it was a Supreme Court ruling. I suspect that Roe will be overturned completely, or possibly abortion rights will be restricted via regulation, and there will be some women who would prefer an abortion who will end up with a baby instead. I'm not happy about that, but it isn't the end of the world.

The end is not near. Get out and vote. There's only so much they can do with gerrymandering to rig things. Most people don't want a country like Travis has described, or even a sane version of that.. If the court actually does something that pushes us a little bit in that direction, people will push back at the ballot box. It's a temporary problem.

Your cavalier attitude toward women's rights is appalling.

I don't hear any Democrats or other liberals fearing the world collapsing. Some fear Trump, fascism, loss of a lot of rights of minorities, women and the LGBTQ community.

I am disgusted at this step back, appointing a sexist, conspiracy theorist to the SCOTUS. And I have no doubt that man is a sexist frat boy who still has a drinking problem.

CT believers have become mainstream. Doesn't that concern you?

 

[Craig4]

I don't consider him an attempted rapist, though I think the preponderance of evidence may be against him.

Supposing he's an attempted rapist,I wish his children no ill. They did nothing wrong.

Who cares? Provided it's legal, the ends justify the means. If destroying his family keeps him off the court, so be it.

 

[Aridas]

Conservatives in some states have shut down Planned Parenthood clinics or made it hard for them to function. They don't all want to see contraception easy to obtain. They want anyone not married to suffer consequences for having sex. They want abstinence only. Gawd knows why.

There's a few reasons, of course, but... is it worth noting that the pro-life movement isn't actually all that old? And that it really gained steam as proponents played on fears of white people being outbabied by black people? "Pro-choice" was effectively the way of the land apparently, at the time, and the larger issue that more affluent women statistically have less children was very much in play, which meant that the more generally affluent white women had distinctly lower birthrates than the generally poorer black women. With that said, yes, incidentally, then and now, some pro-choice proponents were pointedly in favor of abortions because of similar concerns, expressed a bit differently. Either way, it's worth saying that some of the secondary justifications of the pro-life movement are more prominently featured these days, especially after multiple generations of pointedly trying to instill such values into progeny and propaganda.

 

[Stacyhs]

I'm not sure what good panicking would do.

Even though I see him as unfit, I think he's worth more to the Democrats alive then dead. I expect further investigations into Kavanaugh's background and you never know what they might find looking into this guy. It could easily backfire on the Republicans like Abe Fortas did on LBJ.

And while I don't think someone with Kavanaugh's lack of integrity and obvious partisanship should be on the court, any right wing appointee would probably be a threat to my values. So in the world where Trump is President and the Senate is controlled by Republicans this might just be perfect for the Democrats.

I'm also somewhat comforted by the simple fact that justices sometimes temper their partisanship once on the court. Not always but sometimes.

The end of the world may be coming. but I'm still alive. I can take solace in that.

I doubt there will be any more looking into his past. If anyone had any further insight, they'd have come out by now. He just plain got away with it. As most men do. But I do hope you are right about "justices sometimes temper their partisanship once on the court." Now that he is guaranteed his position for life, he won't have to kowtow to Trump or the Republicans. Unless, of course, he wants to in gratitude.

 

[Aridas]

Who cares? Provided it's legal, the ends justify the means. If destroying his family keeps him off the court, so be it.

I tend to oppose means that sabotage the larger goals that are being fought for, even if they would help accomplish an immediate end.

 

[acbytesla]

That's funny, I've heard the opposite.

Maybe if we all spent less time bitching about the other side and more time discussing with them, with the intent of finding common ground and compromises, things would be better?

Pretty hard to do when the Republicans won't compromise on anything.

I've always found that argument funny about Democrats not willing to compromise and discuss when It was the stated policy of the Republican leadership NOT to work with Obama on ANYTHING and they did that for 8 years.

 

[Craig4]

I tend to oppose means that sabotage the larger goals that are being fought for, even if they would help accomplish an immediate end.

He said yes to Trump. At that point, he's a sacrifice true, loyal Americans should be willing to make.

 

[Aridas]

I've always found that argument funny about Democrats not willing to compromise and discuss when It was the stated policy of the Republican leadership NOT to work with Obama on ANYTHING and they did that for 8 years.

Yeah, pretty much. Ideological dissent is fine, as far as I'm concerned, and that's exactly what the Democrats seem to be doing, by the look of it. Wholly partisan dissent is not, and that's exactly what Republican policy was.

 

[The Big Dog]

“If destroying his family keeps him off the court, so be it.”

Surprisingly enough, not a quote from ISIS.

Holy crap.

 

[Beelzebuddy]

I doubt there will be any more looking into his past. If anyone had any further insight, they'd have come out by now. He just plain got away with it. As most men do. But I do hope you are right about "justices sometimes temper their partisanship once on the court." Now that he is guaranteed his position for life, he won't have to kowtow to Trump or the Republicans. Unless, of course, he wants to in gratitude.

Actually quite a lot of people had further insight, and did come out by now, but the FBI was forbidden from contacting them by the White House. The ABA has no such qualms, it does its own investigations, uses its own definition for perjury and standard of proof thereof, and has at least 1200 law professors who last I heard were a mite peeved about all the shenanigans. Maybe nothing will come of that, maybe we'll get to find out what happens when a sitting justice is disbarred, either way it's out of our electoral hands.

 

[Aridas]

He said yes to Trump. At that point, he's a sacrifice true, loyal Americans should be willing to make.

Even if that was true, that's on him. Not his family. His family could be drawn in depending on how they act, but they should not have to shoulder his "sins."