Supreme Court Appointments Are Political. Let Them Be.
When a vote of no confidence happens in Parliament, there aren’t hearings. Documents aren’t subpoenaed and no one expects the Prime Minister to answer questions on the hypotheticals of his continued tenure. This is because everyone understands it’s a political vote. You can expect survival to come down to coalitions and parties.
So, the entire act that we have gone through with Supreme Court appointments over the last several decades are just that: an act. An offering at the altar of the myth of the non-partisan Supreme Court. There might have been, from time to time, a brief consensus that the President should be entitled to appoint well qualified people and the other party wouldn’t object. That time is passed. But so is the time where qualifications can be defined in any objective way. The Supreme Court destroyed its legitimacy in Bush v. Gore and it won’t get it back any time soon. Games over filibusters and hearings won’t do it.
The appointments are just as political as votes for President or votes for Speaker of the House. Let them be. Kavanaugh will be appointed. This is a result of an election where the Republican base was largely motivated for this to happen. If there’s any mandate in Trump’s election, it was to appoint right-wing judges. The sooner Democrats get into the game on this the better for them.
