Pre-edit: my next piece for the Shinbone...
Kavanaugh and the GOP end game
As another woman (and possibly a third) comes forward to attest to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s character -or lack thereof - in his younger years, the GOP braintrust is feverishly working on how to craft the perfect lie, er, response to get their nominee over the finish line before the shit hits the fan.
The Republicans are desperate to get this done because it is the goal they’ve worked toward for the last fifty years. Starting with Nixon’s “Law and Order” campaign in 1968, GOP outreach to the“Silent Majority” consisted of carefully stoking the resentments and fears of white voters across the political spectrum.
Ronald Reagan continued that strategy (welfare queens, “inner city crime”) and added the slogan “Government IS the problem!” building distrust of the federal government because of all the Great Society programs giving black people “free stuf.” All the while their donor base spent hundreds of millions of dollars establishing think tanks, foundations and legislative councils that influenced the conversations concerning societal rights and wrongs.
Their paid for point of view has been driving decades of politics and the media coverage of politics toward one end. Control of the federal judiciary and Supreme Court for the foreseeable future in order to legally codify the results of their legislative thievery. That’s it. This is why they have exploited social wedge issues to their advantage, why they’ve engaged in wholesale gerrymandering and voter suppression.
This is why they’ve pretended to give a shit about abortion and fiscal responsibility… even the evangelical leaders know it’s all a scam for money and power… why ya think so many upstanding GOPers get literally caught with their pants down?
Back in October 2016 the late Senator John McCain said if Clinton won the election, the GOP Senate would block any SCOTUS nomination. He took it back, (yeah, right) but with their outright theft of a seat who could say they wouldn’t gum up the works for another four years?
What no one in the GOP leadership and donor base had foreseen was Donald Trump actually winning. They laid the groundwork so well the Russians knew they could exploit the racism, xenophobia and misogyny of the Republican voter base with their marionette. When Republicans realized what kind of monster they’d unleashed on the world they didn’t grab torch and pitchfork to help the villagers subdue their creation. Nope, they went to the club and “moderates” like Lindsay Graham ordered bottle service.
They willfully jumped on the Trump Train but they really didn’t expect him to turn into a president who needed a specific Supreme Court seat to cover his ass. The best laid plans...
So they settled on this guy, Kavanaugh, because they could plausibly sell him as the guy would deliver a sledgehammer to the underpinnings of Roe v Wade. Their only play is to get this guy confirmed come hell or high water because to do otherwise will be the end of their fifty year effort.
We might survive as a nation after all.
Poll
5 (45.5%)