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The GOP’s Bad Faith Attack on Judge Jackson Reveals Their Ugly Midterm Strategy
All they have is their culture war
The Senate confirmation hearing of Judge Jackson, one of the most qualified judges to ever be nominated, was a grotesque exercise for craven Republican Senators to use the first Black female nominated to the Supreme Court as a Trojan Horse for their conspiracy theories and talking points ahead of the midterm elections.
Judge Jackson had to Daft Punk it through the confirmation hearing, just like in life, doing everything harder, better, faster, stronger, and smarter than her white colleagues, such as Justice Barrett, who failed up despite failing to name the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment during her hearing. As Senator Alex Padilla said, “this confirmation hearing has been a reminder — and in some ways, a new Exhibit A — that for people of color, particularly those who have the audacity to try to be the first, [they] often have to work twice as hard to get half the respect.”
The hearing was also Exhibit A of all the talking points that the GOP will use to stir up the deranged racial anxieties of its base, which is increasingly being told that people of color are going to “replace” them. The GOP doesn’t have any plans or solutions for climate change, income inequality, child poverty, or Covid relief. All they have is their culture war and an often complicit media ecosystem that normalizes their rhetoric. That might be enough to take control in 2022 and 2024.
Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk perfectly captured their racist fears when he remarked, “Kentanji Brown Jackson is what your country looks like on critical race theory…your children and your grandchildren are going to have to take orders from people like her. And what’s amazing is that she kind of has an attitude too.”
Kirk’s comment reveals the paralyzing fear that is at the heart of white supremacy in which racial equality is a zero-sum game that will only result in the weakening and domination of white people. The mere thought of sharing power and living as equals with people of color is the same as a death sentence. The ascension of President Obama to the White House was their Code Red. Now? A Black woman will replace a white man on the Supreme Court. That’s…
