Democrats snoozed while Republicans took over the courts. It's time to fight back
Democrats snoozed while Republicans took over the courts. It's time to fight back
The Democratic base is tired of the party being passive about Republicans packing the judiciary. So what’s their game plan?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/08/democrats-judiciary-right-wing-kavanaugh?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTEwMDg%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email
<<snip>>
But the protesters’ anger at the court went beyond Kavanaugh himself, and beyond, even, the insult to women’s dignity and threat to women’s rights that the man represents. Representative Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusettes, told the crowd, “Kavanaugh may have that seat (for now), but what we are fighting for is so much bigger than one insecure man blinded by his privilege.” The protesters see Kavanaugh as only the most egregious symptom of a court system that is gravely diseased. Their action speaks to a growing liberal agitation around the judiciary, led by feminists, that is poised to change the politics of the courts.
Traditionally, it was only the right that cared about the judiciary. Republicans ran on promises to appoint judges that would uphold conservative social values, and oppose abortion and gay rights. Those judges in turn enshrined the legality of gerrymandering, curtailed voting rights, and opened the floodgates of unlimited corporate money in politics, interventions which have enabled the Republican party to maintain power even in districts where they have only a minority of popular support. The result became cyclical: Republicans won by promising to appoint conservative judges, and then those conservative judges issued decisions that helped more Republicans win.
To the left, the judiciary had often been more of an afterthought. Conventional wisdom held that the judiciary could not be counted on as a motivating issue for Democrats the same way that it could for Republicans. But the Kavanaugh appointment brought a new sense of urgency to the matter; the Court’s new conservative majority, and the spectacle of the emotional Senate confirmation hearings through which Republicans secured this majority, galvanized the attention of a Democratic base that increasingly feels that its basic civil rights are imperiled under a federal judiciary packed with Trump appointees and a Supreme Court controlled by Trump allies.
There is some evidence that this concern expands well beyond the activist left: in September, a poll conducted by the firm Perry Undem found that a full 60% of Americans thought it likely that Brett Kavanaugh committed perjury during his confirmation hearings, a figure that suggests that popular support for impeaching the Justice may be easy for Democrats to come by. Support for abortion rights is even higher, meaning that the Supreme Court, which is poised to issue the first assault on abortion of its new conservative majority just before the next presidential election, is not only comprised of justices that the people do not trust, but is also likely to hand down opinions that the people do not want.
And this is the problem with the Supreme Court: it is a profoundly un-democratic institution, and has only been made more so by the right’s determination to politicize the court and to manipulate it into helping them secure a policy agenda that runs counter to popular will. The gross injustice of the Kavanaugh confirmation made Americans—and feminists in particular—more aware of the urgency of the problem, and less accepting of its inevitability.
<<snip>>
= new reply since forum marked as read
and "expat." But my maternal grandmom was born in Texas, so I take no offense. 
Land of the Big Sky!
was that it seemed to parallel the votes for Hillary as a "close loss", whereas voters overwhelming elected Democrats for all the top state positions (State Attorney General, State Treasurer, State Auditor General). 
but I know looking at 2016 here, you can see a bunch of folks apparently didn't vote for the top of the ticket or for Senate, but did vote for the other top state positions just based on the vote totals. But... that is now water under a bridge. But in 2018, we were able to re-elect a Democrat for governor (Wolf) and keep Casey (another Democrat) in his Senate seat for another 6-year term - which actually made him the longest-serving Democratic Senator here in PA if I'm not mistaken. 
