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Democrats Threaten to Burn Down the Republic to Stack the Supreme Court
Townhall.com ^ | September 23, 2020 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 09/23/2020 4:46:53 AM PDT by Kaslin

Last week, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at the age of 87. Her death immediately initiated a political firestorm in Washington, D.C. -- one that threatens the very integrity of the republic. That's not because, as the media and Democrats would claim, some sort of institutional norm has been violated by a Republican president selecting a replacement for Ginsburg to be voted on by a Republican Senate. It's because Democrats have declared that so long as they are unable to replace Ginsburg with an activist left-wing judge willing to use the Constitution to cram down liberal policy prescriptions, they will tear down every barrier to majoritarian tyranny.

The Constitution was specifically constructed to promote gridlock. That's because the Founding Fathers greatly feared majoritarian tyranny -- legalized mob rule by which simple majorities could cram down violations of rights on minorities. To that end, they balanced the House of Representatives, which was popularly elected, and the Senate, which was represented by state and selected by state legislatures. They balanced the legislative branch with the executive and judicial branches. They balanced power between a federal structure and state governments. The founders believed that the greatest protection for individual rights lay in ambition checking ambition at every level.

Progressives have, since the beginning of the 20th century, objected to this philosophy of government. Instead, they have seen institutional gridlock as a danger to "getting things done." Former President Woodrow Wilson infamously explained that "Men as communities are supreme over men as individuals," and that, therefore, there ought to be no institutional checks against governmental necessity. Democrats have faithfully carried forward that vision, checked only by political reality -- Wilson unconstitutionally expanded the executive branch; Franklin Roosevelt infamously sought to pack the Supreme Court; Lyndon Johnson radically expanded the size and scope of the federal government; Barack Obama declared that the government itself "is us."

That meant that for the political left, all institutions of government had to be converted into instruments of power or destroyed. The left has done just that with the Supreme Court for generations, viewing it as a repository for transformational change rather than a legal body with a mandate to only interpret honestly the words of the law. With that view of the court threatened by a Republican-appointed majority, Democrats are now panicking.

And they are responding with radical threats to break every check and balance. This week, Democrats openly threatened to destroy the Senate filibuster, a traditional mechanism for restraining bare majorities, most recently used by Democrats themselves to stymie COVID-19 relief funding. They also threatened to add new states to the union, specifically citing federal territories they believe will elect Democrats; and to pack the Supreme Court, reestablishing a Democratic-appointed majority by adding new seats.

These actions aren't merely violative of constitutional principles and the founding philosophy. They are dangerous. Imagine a 55-vote Democratic majority in a 104-seat body, cramming through a gun confiscation measure, greenlit by a 13-member court packed by Democrats. Will red states simply acquiesce to this overt seizure of power, to this absurd rewriting of the constitutional bargain? Why should they?

All of which means that the 2020 presidential race has now become a referendum on the Democrats, not President Donald Trump. Democratic candidate Joe Biden's inherent campaign pledge was a return to stability, not a leap into revolution. But by threatening the institutional architecture, Biden's campaign has become just that. Now Americans will be forced to choose between the vulgarity of Donald Trump -- a vulgarity and boorishness, however off-putting, that has not threatened constitutional rights -- and a vengeful Democratic Party threatening to remold the country from the top down.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: supremecourt
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To: Kaslin

Seems to me that it could be a much better country just by following the design of the founders as expressed in our Constitution instead of trying to change everything to gain an advantage for one side or the other.


21 posted on 09/23/2020 5:41:05 AM PDT by oldtech
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To: albie
“Now Americans will be forced to choose between the vulgarity of Donald Trump...”

Interesting how they use vulgarity when talking about Trump and every other word out of the left's mount is fxxk'n this and fxxk'n that.

22 posted on 09/23/2020 5:42:13 AM PDT by mosaicwolf
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To: Biggirl

Alexandria O Cortez said regarding this appointment, “Let this moment radicalize you.”

Any condemnation from her party?

Heck no!

And so she winds them up. We can see the consequences a mile away.

More riots. Worse violence. They’re already assassinating mail carriers in Chicago. Mail carriers are refusing to go out.

A man in Twitter predicts that Trump’s vaccine will kill us and he further predicts that we will go to hell.

(I’m not sure if Twitter would ban me if people here swarmed the guy.)


23 posted on 09/23/2020 5:42:55 AM PDT by rob from twitter (Rob Hates Politics mostly on twitter: @robsurber)
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To: Kaslin

“Democrats Threaten to Burn Down the Republic to Stack the Supreme Court”

They why HAVE a Supreme Court... or ANY court for that matter?


24 posted on 09/23/2020 5:43:16 AM PDT by SMARTY ('Calling a thing by its right name is the beginning of wisdom.')
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To: CincyRichieRich

Destroy the ‘balance’ between Liberal and Conservative justices


25 posted on 09/23/2020 5:45:30 AM PDT by SMARTY ('Calling a thing by its right name is the beginning of wisdom.')
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To: Biggirl

I simply cannot understand the desperation of these people to accomplish these changes in our constitutional infrastructure. These attitudes and actions resemble those of individuals who are acting under duress. Like their children are being held hostage, or like they are beheld to a mafia boss compelling them to get it done or face consequences.


26 posted on 09/23/2020 5:52:16 AM PDT by Samurai_Jack (Democrats are not the enemy, Republicans are not your friends. We're on our own folks!)
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To: A_perfect_lady

GOOD PLAN, imVho.= Leftist heads would explode all over the USA, if DJT even suggested that.

Yours, TMN78247


27 posted on 09/23/2020 5:53:37 AM PDT by TMN78247 ("VICTORY or DEATH", William Barrett Travis, LtCol, comdt., Fortress of the Alamo, Bejar, F'by 241836)
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To: Samurai_Jack

Politics is there religion. Trump is their Nero persecuting them.


28 posted on 09/23/2020 5:53:50 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: CincyRichieRich

This is an interesting article about when Roosevelt tried to pack the court. It ultimately failed.

https://www.history.com/news/franklin-roosevelt-tried-packing-supreme-court


29 posted on 09/23/2020 6:09:14 AM PDT by Bartholomew Roberts
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To: A_perfect_lady

Trump should send out a Tweet saying just that. Something along the line of:

“Since the Dems are in favor of stacking the court, I am considering adding 6 new nominees to my list next week.”

Then just wait for the whining and gnashing of teeth. Liberal heads would explode.


30 posted on 09/23/2020 6:35:03 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: Kaslin

Why are you surprised, Ben?

This has been their MO since the day the ink dried on Saul Alinsky’s manuscript.


31 posted on 09/23/2020 6:45:20 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: SES1066

Hey Dems, how is that eliminating the filibuster working out for you?

Thanks Harry!


32 posted on 09/23/2020 6:52:15 AM PDT by joshua c
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To: Kaslin

Tomorrow, Trump should nominate THREE people for SCOTUS. RATs think they’re the only ones who can pack the court? (I think they do!) Scare the living crap out of ‘em and nominate three or four people while the Senate is GOP heavy. It wouldn’t go through, but it could scare some folks.


33 posted on 09/23/2020 6:55:19 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Disappointment is inevitable. Discouragement is a choice.)
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To: Kaslin
Mike Lee said this morning, we are going to "fill the seat" before the election and if the House begins to take up impeachment, we will swiftly end the committee hearings and move the nominated judge to a full Senate vote.

He also said, we do not have any constitutional duties or mandates to even have a committee hearing, so push us Dems and the hearing will be over and a full vote will occur the very next day!

34 posted on 09/23/2020 7:08:42 AM PDT by thirst4truth (America, What difference does it make?)
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To: Kaslin

Show me these genteel Democrats who find Trump more boorish and vulgar than they are.


35 posted on 09/23/2020 7:12:59 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: central_va

If politics is their religion then they’ve adopted the Jihad methodology


36 posted on 09/23/2020 7:34:41 AM PDT by Samurai_Jack (Democrats are not the enemy, Republicans are not your friends. We're on our own folks!)
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To: Kaslin

The truly sad part is how many Biden/Harris supporters are on board with the “burn this system down” stance.


37 posted on 09/23/2020 8:24:09 AM PDT by jughandle (Big words anger me, keep talking.)
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To: virgil

They are going to cheat. It’s called Voter Fraud.
These are low life people that never grew up. They want what they want and care for nothing else.


38 posted on 09/23/2020 8:31:01 AM PDT by AlphaOneAlpha
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To: Kaslin
No matter how the election turns out, there will have to be revolutionary violence.

It's all institutions that are corrupt.

39 posted on 09/23/2020 10:01:33 AM PDT by Salman (If they win by terrorism, they will rule by terrorism. Nobody ever got mellower by getting power.)
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To: Jim Noble

The destruction of the Senate as originally designed in 1913? THAT was a Constitutional issue, but it was done legally.


That is highly debatable. Article V of the Constitution prohibits an Amendment to take away the equal suffrage of the State in the Senate without the relevant state’s consent.


40 posted on 09/23/2020 1:51:51 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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