On Amy Coney Barrett's Nomination to the Supreme Court

            Get a Grip, Folks. Amy Coney Barrett will be confirmed for the Supreme Court, probably before the election, and there is not a thing anyone can do to prevent that. I’m as appalled as anyone else that Moscow Mitch and his minions, with brazen hypocrisy, have taken the opposite position to the one they took in 2016 when they refused even to schedule confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. All we can do is hope for the best.

            Many previous Supreme Court justices have proven to be surprises. Probably the one who proved most disappointing to the president who nominated him, Dwight Eisenhower, was Earl Warren, who ruled in favor of desegregating schools and against school prayer. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember all the “Impeach Earl Warren” billboards and bumper stickers we used to see on the highways and byways of America. David Souter, appointed by George H. W. Bush, proved to be surprisingly liberal. Even John Roberts voted in favor of Obamacare and has honored stare decisis over his personal beliefs with regard to abortion clinics. Neil Gorsuch was an unexpected surprise on LGBTQ rights in the workplace. Often justices don’t live up to our worst fears. They grow into the jobs.

            It will do the Democratic Party more harm than good to attack Barrett for her religious beliefs, which are protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution she will be pledged to uphold; the damage she might do to the Affordable Care Act, on which many Americans have come to rely, is fair game, especially given the pandemic, but if she rules that act unconstitutional, perhaps Congress will go back to the drawing board and enact truly universal health care, like those evil socialist countries Denmark, Sweden, and Germany have, or perhaps even Medicare for All. Congress has been asleep at the switch lately. Perhaps our elected “representatives” will actually start representing us again.

            In short, Barrett’s appointment might be good in the long run. Let’s hope for the best and fight our battles where we can win—like get our butts out and vote, whether by mail, absentee, or in person. Remember, Trump did not win the popular vote last time, and his margins in the states that pushed him over in the Electoral College were small. Let’s not let that happen again!

        And remember, as Max Skidmore explained in his Common Sense Manifesto, which I reviewed a few months ago, only one of the two major parties has a chance of winning, so skip voting for a third party