Supreme Court Nomination & My Growing Rage Against Progressives

With the 2020 Presidential Election less than 50 days away, the October Surprise, arrived on 18th September, a month earlier, on a Friday evening, with the heartbreaking news of the passing away of a progressive & feminist icon, Justice Ruth Ginsburg.

As I was processing this devastating news, another breaking news followed.

The grief of Justice Ginsburg’s passing away was slowly replacing a dawning horror of the consequence of her unexpected loss & with it a sickening fury.

The breaking news that followed the announcement of Justice Ginsburg’s death was about Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority leader. McConnell, after hastily expressing his condolences, expressed his intent to push for a Senate vote to fill the replacement for Justice Ruth Ginsburg Supreme Court Seat.

Let’s be clear here —

Mitch McConnell is a despicable human being. I agree.

Mitch McConnell has no sense of decency. I agree.

Mitch McConnel ( fill in the blank with an unChristian word). I agree.

However let’s also be clear:

MITCH MCCONNELL IS NOT DOING ANYTHING OUT OF BOUNDS OF THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN HIM AS THE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

So who am I angry with?

I am angry with those so-called progressives who virtue signal indignantly at those of us who understand the benefits and constraints of a pluralistic, liberal democratic & economic institution based on the rule of law and want to work at making them better.

I am filled with rage at those progressives whose sanctimonious belief as enlightened authorities of anti-capitalism, class conflict, social & cultural issues lead them to embrace morally absolutist position in support of grandiose “progressive” social, economic and political goals. Goals, mind you, with scant details on implementation or plans for potential risk mitigation. Only demagogues, populists, anti-pluralists & megalomaniac tyrants drip with such piety.

Yes, I’m referring to those progressives who cost us the 2016 election!

I am angry at those progressives who claim to support Climate Action, Women’s Right to Reproductive Rights, LGBTQ Rights, Rights of Minorities, Universal Health Care, Economic Equality.

Yet in 2016 a third of those progressive chose not to vote, voted for a third party or worse switched their vote to Republican Party’s Presidential nominee Donald Trump!

I am angry at the 12% of Bernie Sander’s Progressive supporters who in 2016 decided to vote for, Donald Trump. That is 1 in 10 Progressives chose to defect to the Republican Party and Donald Trump because they claimed the alternative was worse.

I am angry at the 11% of Progressives who in 2016 decided to vote for Green or Libertarian Party as a dissenting vote.

The Green Party — whose base is more libertarian than progressive — cost the Democrats the 2016 Presidential Election, according to various post-election analysis.

According to Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman

In 2016 Presential Election, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan Donald Trump margin of victory were less than Jill Stein’s Green Party with a difference of about 80,000 votes determining the outcome in those three states.

I am angry at those high profile progressives who in 2016 claimed Democratic Establishment to be the real enemy of progress, predicting a revolution if Donald Trump was elected as President.

In one shocking interview with Chris Hayes, a self-proclaimed progressive and a die-hard Bernie Sanders supporter, Susan Sarandon, made the following claim:

“I think Bernie would probably encourage people [to vote Clinton], because he doesn’t have a lot of ego in this,” she said. “But I think a lot of people are, ‘Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to do that.’” As for herself, “I don’t know. I’m going to see what happens.”

“Really?” an incredulous Hayes asked.

“Some people feel Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately,” she replied.

So here we are in 2020, with no revolution in sight, unless of course, you happen to champion the conservative causes.

Republicans in the past four years have cut taxes for the wealthy, rolled — LGBTQ rights, Voting Rights, Environmental Regulatory Protection, Welfare Funding, Consumer Protection Agencies — back, while cutting funding for science and research. All of the above doesn’t even factor the two Republican nominated Supreme Court justices or wealthy beneficiaries of the Covid-19 economic package.

As I write this another news is breaking — Senator Mitt Romney supports Mitch Connell in calling a Senate Vote on Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination.

The nomination, if it has enough vote ( and it probably does) will tilt and seal the Supreme Court with a 6–3 Conservative Majority.

The Revolution Susan Sarandon spoke of is here. It happens to be a Conservative one!

In 2016, for those of us who support a pluralist, liberal democratic institution, Hillary Clinton’s victory was of paramount importance. We understood the far-reaching consequences of her loss.

In 2020, when we should be focusing on the Presidential Elections, Democratic leaders are scrambling to find a way to stop the Supreme Court nomination, oscillating between threats and appeals. Act Blue has broken donation records since the news of Justice Ginsburg’s demise. A funding campaign called, “Get Mitch or Die Trying” has raised over $10 Million.

The Battle for 2020 is raging. But the war was lost in 2016.

In a heartbreaking letter released by Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Justice Ginsburg in her last dying moments spent time dictating her deepest wish for her replacement nomination to take place after the 2020 Presidental Vote. Justice Ginsburg knew, even as she was taking her last breath, what was at stake.

We have genuinely let Justice Ruth Ginsburg down & the rights & freedoms she fought for, so that wealthy vacuous elites like Susan Sarendon can virtue signal her so called progressive cred.