But, McConnell's gamble worked, and since he made his play, I've been talking about court-packing. I've been doing it on this blog as early as February, 2017. See, for example, here and here, when Neil Plagiarist-Gorsuch was nominated. I'm not sure why everyone else was so slow to realize how close we are to this, but court-packing is a high likelihood.
Let's define our terms, because we have to do that amid Mitch McConnell's lies and douchebaggery. Do you remember how "the nuclear option" got used? Mitch McConnell forced Harry Reid to use it for lower-court and executive branch nominations. Here's how. He asserted that Obama alone, in the history of presidents, could not be allowed to fill vacancies on the DC Circuit Court. That's the second-most important court because it sits directly below the Supreme Court, and challenges to federal regulations go through it. On what basis did McConnell make this bullshit claim? On the basis of a stupid, vile lie. He called it "court-packing" if Obama were to fill vacancies on the DC Circuit Court. What is court-packing, really? It was a proposal by FDR to expand the size of the Supreme Court because they kept striking down New Deal legislation. That way, he could appoint a bunch of new Justices to an expanded Court who would approve his policies. Not even remotely the same, but McConnell isn't remotely bound by honesty or conscience. So, he announced that the entire GOP, including John McCain, Susan Collins, and the rest of that band of hypocritical shitholes, would filibuster anyone. Didn't matter who. They didn't care about qualifications, or anything. That Court belonged to the GOP, and only the GOP. They did this. For real.
So, Reid either had to surrender control of the DC Circuit Court to the Republican Party, or use the nuclear option, and ban filibusters of lower court nominations. He went the latter option. He didn't really have much of a choice. McConnell forced his hand. Why? So that he could say it was all the Democrats' fault when the Republicans abused majority rule, ran roughshod over Democrats and then went nuclear on the Supreme Court. And hey, have you noticed the general media pattern of blaming the Democrats for majority rule on court nominations? Bullshit. This is all McConnell. He's what happens if you take all of Trump's sociopathy and give him a brain. He's that dangerous to democracy.
And by the time we got to his blockade of the Supreme Court, it was clear to me, at least, that actual court-packing was the only possible response. Why? Because there's no other way to get back what the Democrats have lost.
This leads to two questions. First, will they do it? Second, what are the consequences?
Will Democrats go through with court-packing? They'd have to get power first, and bluntly, it isn't obvious that will happen at any point in the foreseeable future. Medium-to-long term predictions are a mug's game. An economic crash could take the GOP out of it really fast, but right now, the economy is in amazing shape, and the Republican Party will do anything to hold onto power. Here's a simple trick to keep the White House Republican. Take the states that go Democratic at the presidential level, but have Republican control at the state level. Pass legislation at the state level to split the electoral college delegates up by congressional district. Republicans turn their state-level advantages into a lock on the electoral college, and they've already contemplated this trick. Democrats can't do the same because they don't control states that go GOP at the presidential level. See how this works? And this is about the most innocent of things that could happen, before we get into the sleazier shit Trump could do. Would McConnell do this? In a heartbeat. There are far more worrisome possibilities in a country in which a demagogic president regularly calls the press "the enemy of the people" while lying about every single thing.
Then, there's the question of what Democrats would do if they ever got power. The Democratic tradition is to bring an edible flower arrangement to a gunfight, and then wonder why they lose. Court-packing requires having some courage, which is in short supply among Democrats. A bunch of them are so fucking stupid that, after having the Supreme Court stolen from them, if they get the Senate back, they want to give Republicans back the ability to filibuster. Gee... I wonder what would happen.
Finally, what happens if Democrats actually go through with it? What if the economy tanks, and Trump loses in 2020? And voluntarily steps down? (Let's hope it's that simple...) What if the next president is a Democrat, they get Congress, and pack the court to outvote the rapist and the plagiarist?
Here's the thing about escalation. It keeps happening. As long as the GOP wins another election after that, they pack the Court when it's their turn. The size of the Court sequentially expands as each party responds to the other's court-pack in order to seize control of the Judiciary. The result is a Court that just keeps getting to an ever-unwieldier size. It breaks the system.
Good. Really, Mitch already broke it. Somebody really needs to make that motherfucker pay the bill. Pottery Barn rule. And make Susan Collins sweep up. She isn't fit for anything more advanced than janitorial work, if that.
