Tuesday brings day two of hearings in the Republican drive to get Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court before voters can have their say. What to expect as Barrett faces actual questions? Time will tell if Sen. Mike Lee’s unmasked presence in the hearing, despite having coronavirus, will create a new superspreader event, but a few things are guaranteed: Republicans will continue trying to portray Democrats as attacking Barrett’s religion while Democrats don’t talk about Barrett’s religion. Democrats will continue pointing out that part of the rush to get Barrett on the court is to put her in position to strike down the Affordable Care Act immediately after the elections. And Barrett will continue trying to portray herself as a nice lady who is not here to take away your health care and force women into back alleys for abortions—even though she totally is.
“Republicans finally realized the ACA is too popular to repeal in Congress, so now they are trying to bypass the will of voters and have the Supreme Court do their dirty work,” Sen. Kamala Harris said in her opening statement on Monday. She’s right. But Republicans are also trying to overturn Roe v. Wade and maybe end marriage equality, too. They’re going for decades of anti-worker decisions, and for gutting efforts to slow climate change. Basically anything Democrats might want to do to improve people’s lives? Republicans see in Barrett the chance to get ultimate veto power, courtesy of a president who lost the popular vote and senators representing less population than do the senators they’ll outvote.
Republicans are expected to put Barrett in soft focus, focusing on her motherhood and her popularity with students during her time as a law school professor.
We hope Democrats will put focus on Barrett's far-right views and what they might mean for future decisions, but since Barrett is going to lie about her intentions when she’s not evading the questions entirely, it’s unlikely to yield much of interest beyond clips of Democrats asking tough questions.
On Tuesday, Lee will be joined by Sen. Thom Tillis in participating in the hearing in person despite a recent coronavirus diagnosis. Just to put the icing on the crap cake of this assault on decency.