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RBG Deserves Better Than Liberal Defeatism
The GOP’s hypocritical effort to replace her isn’t cause for despair. It’s grounds for a fight.
Among the anguished reactions to the death of the American hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday night was a category that concluded, essentially, “We’re screwed.” Liberal commentators quickly and grimly prognosticated doom: Donald Trump nominating a conservative replacement to Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat, Mitch McConnell’s Republican-led Senate confirming that replacement, Roe v. Wade being doomed, and the court locking in a conservative majority for years to come — all before voters have a say.
The despair is understandable. This has been a brutal year, and a brutal man is the president. People are beaten down to the point that pessimism just looks like realism. There is absolutely no reason to believe that either Trump or McConnell care about norms, decency, or avoiding even the most blatantly apparent hypocrisies. Any faith in the rest of the Republican congressional ranks to constrain their leaders in any way more meaningful than anonymous expressions of concern or post-departure book deals would be similarly delusional.
So, yes, the despair is understandable — but wrong.
First, it’s a disservice to Justice Ginsburg. Part of what distinguished her was a determination to stand up and fight, even when the battle seemed unwinnable. On her deathbed, Ginsburg dictated a final statement to her granddaughter: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” The very least that liberals and progressives could do to honor her now is to take that wish seriously, and start thinking strategically about how to achieve it, rather than throwing in the towel while her body is still warm.
More importantly, the defeatism is self-fulfilling. We know Trump and McConnell will do everything in their power to replace Ginsburg before the election, but it is not a foregone conclusion that they’ll succeed. It’s true Democrats don’t have the numbers to stop a united GOP. At first blush, it looks like all they have on their side is a political norm, and a flimsy one at that — the so-called “McConnell Rule,” which militates against confirming a new Supreme Court justice in a…
