The recent death of Ginsburg, a US Supreme Court jurist has resulted in a “major earthquake” in this years US Presidential race.
Early voting: Justice Ginsburg’s death just highlighted a reason for why early voting should not be allowed. People are already mailing in their ballots or appearing in person to submit their ballots. The political landscape has significantly changed. Those who have already voted probably cannot change their votes. Thus, those who have already voted have made a decision based on incomplete knowledge.
Who Will be the Nominee to Replace Ginsburg? Biden, on numerous occasions, claims that he is running a “transparent” and that the electorate “knows” what he stands for. Nevertheless, Biden is withholding from the public a list of potential nominees. Given that degree of vagueness and lack of disclosure, why should the public vote for Biden. Trump has already released a list of potential nominees. Yet Biden lamely asserts that the public should elect him as President contending that he should be given the power to nominate a potential Supreme Court justice without actually disclosing to the public who he would nominate. Circular logic that is exceedingly deceptive. Previously, Biden has given a hint, in that he proposes to nominate a Black woman. One could contend that this type of nomination could be considered racist and not based on competence as it should be. In subsequent Q/As concerning a variety of topics, Biden has expressed contradictory viewpoints, so one does not really know what he proposes.
Why Rush the Nomination Process? The obvious answer, the Republicans are in trouble, they may not win the Presidential election and/or retain control of the US Senate. The Republicans are now in charge. If they want to rush the process, they are entitled to do so. Recall Obama infamous remark that “election have consequences” when he stiffed the Republicans.
Disingenuously, the Democrats want to slowdown the confirmation process by claiming that this close to the election, that it should be left to the person elected this November to make the actual nomination. That is obfuscation. Trump and the Senate were elected by the people to carry-out their tasks until they leave office. Fantastically, some in the anti-Trump crowd are even calling Trump’s legitimate execution of Constitutional authority an “abuse of power”. How absurd. Trump and the Senate are entitled, until the day they leave office, to act on the nomination process. The people elected Trump and the members of the Senate to work on their behalf until the day they leave office, not to defer decision making until the next administration.
The Call for Violence: The death of Ginsburg has evidently refueled Democratic calls for so-called “peaceful protest” in the name of protecting democracy. Peaceful protest does not involve intimidating and shouting down opposition law makers. Recall the violence directed at Kavanaugh and Republican Senators during Kavanaugh’s nomination process. There are indications that this is approach to disruption is reemerging, both Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michael Moore have called for protests to disrupt the nomination process. Disrupting the process of selecting a Supreme Court Justice is not protecting democracy.
Filibuster: A small story that has emerged as a sideline to the process of selecting a Supreme Court justice. Essentially, over-time, the US political process has become more “democratic” and less of a “republic”. Sounds great on the surface, but there are hidden pitfalls to being a rabid full blown democracy. That is the tyranny of the majority. I won’t be going into much detail, but the filibuster, as part of the Senate’s operational procedures are meant to put a “break” on the tyranny of the majority by permitting the minority to have sufficient power to prevent the majority from acting immediately in a unilateral dictatorial fashion. Republicans, ironically have now usurped the Democrats’ abolition of the filibuster and are now using the “tyranny of the majority” against the Democrats. Payback. To conclude, the Democrats, over the years, have (unfortunately) successfully eroded many of those “breaks” in their efforts to fully control the US political process through the “tyranny of the majority”.