Don’t reward Dems for shattering norms

If you oppose the GOP’s intention to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat so close to the election on principle; if you hate hypocrisy and are appalled by the willingness to upend longstanding political norms in the relentless pursuit of power, then you only have one choice this November: support Thom Tillis for Senate.

While his opponent, Cal Cunningham, seems like a smart and decent man, ultimately he would be just another vote for the Democrats. Their long and relentless attack on the norms of American political life, and their pledge to finish the job if they take the reins of power next year, make the Republicans’ SCOTUS efforts look like small beer.

First, a little history.

Democrats and their press agents like to pretend that Supreme Court history began in 2016 when the Republicans refused to hold hearings for Obama nominee Merrick Garland, claiming the voters should decide who fills the seat that November.

That was wrong because Republicans were too honest about their determination to oppose any Obama nominee. For appearances sake, they could have gone through the process and then voted against him as Democrats did in 2006 when only four of them supported the nomination of Samuel Alito and as they would in 2017 when just three voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch and in 2018, when just one Democrat voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but the backdrop to the Garland vote matters. It came after decades in which Democrats had debased Supreme Court hearings by turning them into forums for personal attacks. Robert Bork’s nasty treatment by Sen. Joe Biden and others in 1987 would seem tame in light of the vicious attacks against Clarence Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh.

No modern Democrat nominee has ever suffered such vitriol.

The Garland kerfuffle came just three years after then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - who scurrilously claimed in 2012 that Mitt Romney had not paid his taxes – had worked to remove the filibuster for many judicial and executive appointments.

No single act has done more to blow up regular order.

The Democrats were just getting started.

After Trump’s clear victory, Adam Schiff and others told countless lies to advance the false narrative that the president had conspired with Russia to steal the victory.

Fact-free scandals are an incalculable danger to our republic.

Democrats subverted the Constitutional provision that a president can only be removed for high crimes and misdemeanors by impeaching Trump without identifying an underlying crime.

Instead they claimed he had abused his power by briefly withholding aid to Ukraine. If that is the new standard, no leader is safe.

The future looks even worse.

Even before Ginsburg’s death, Democrats were threatening to end the filibuster for all legislation if they retake the Senate. They could ram through a wide array of divisive bills – Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, federal bailouts for bankrupt states – with a simple majority. Same goes for granting statehood to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, which would give Democrats four more Senate seats. They have also proposed expanding the Supreme Court so that a President Biden could get all the justice he needs to rubber stamp their actions.

This strategy is a naked grab for power that would destroy our political norms, intensifying the already unimaginable rancor and division. How can a person of principle vote for that?