I made a rough little graph to concisely visualize why winning the Presidency in 2016 matters so much:
I calculated these numbers going by the birth years and the year in which the Supreme Court Justices left the bench
according to wikipedia. The black line shows the average age at which all the previous justices left the Supreme Court. The red line shows the average age of those who left in the last 30 years.
The main point: Four out of the nine Justices are over the average age of all previous justices when they left the bench, and all four will be above the average set by the justices of the past 30 years within the next Presidential term. The odds that one, perhaps even more Supreme Court Justices will be replaced by whoever succeeds President Obama are extremely high.
That, along with what we have seen the Supreme Court do in recent years, is enough reason to make the Presidency the #1 goal from here on out. Which party controls the White House in the next term could decide how quickly we are able to rebuild the Progress made by our predecessors that has been eroded so drastically for the past few years. Or whether it continues for even longer.
Look, I am not saying that we should ignore what happens in 2014. Obviously, there are a lot of pressing issues that can be addressed if Democrats can win big this year. Flipping state legislatures, governors mansions, picking up seats in Congress, these should certainly be serious goals for the near term. We could get Medicaid expansion in more of the states. We could pass immigration reform and raise the minimum wage. I am all for it and no matter what, these are battles that should be fought.
And I do not want to diminish all the great points of those who advocate here for focusing more on downballot races have. If anything, we should heed them more. Obviously, the President is only so powerful, and as important as it is to make judicial appointments, we have far more fronts on which to make extensive progress, that cannot be accomplished by the President alone, although Obama is impressively setting a strong precedent challenging this notion.
But as the recent litany of regressive Supreme Court verdicts have shown, we cannot allow a Republican to be in the White House the next time there is a vacancy.
With the Citizens United ruling, this Supreme Court has opened the Pandora's Box on money in politics, which, to be fair, was never fully closed in the first place. They have gutted provisions of the Voting Rights Act that our activist predecessors gave their blood, sweat, and tears to get passed. They allowed states to opt out of Medicaid Expansion, creating a Coverage Gap leaving millions of Americans without affordable care, that they have been deprived of for no better reason than "reject anything Obama." Along that similar vein, they have allowed Congressional subterfuge to effectively invalidate the Constitutionally-stated right to Presidential recess appointments. And as we have seen, they have seen fit to strike a blow or two against women's rights, organized labor's rights, and so much more.
And in doing all of these, they have abandoned the veil of any sort of judicial integrity over plain old ugly politics. Although I will never waver in my belief that the Founding Fathers had all the best intentions when they made Supreme Court Justices lifetime appointments, ostensibly to insulate the position from political pressures of the day, there is no sugarcoating now how twisted this sytem has become. Perhaps it always has been. Regardless, the Republican-appointed Justices on today's bench have proven time and time again that they will twist their interpretations of the law, even of their predecessor's writings, even of their own writings, even of the supposedly hallowed Constitution itself, in whatever ways they need to suit the political ideologies of their handlers.
As frustrating as we find these setbacks in the court, we must not lose sight of the main goal. If we want to have any hope of reversing the destructive results of these rulings, we must be in the position to put more exemplary Justices on the bench, and let me tell you, I sure as hell doubt any of those will be coming out of a Republican White House anytime soon ever again.
And to the people who want to bash Hillary Clinton every chance they get: do you really want to shoot down our best chance at winning the Presidency in 2016? As much as I feel welcome and amongst fellow likeminded people here at Dailykos, we must remember to never lose touch with the general populace. And the general populace currently loves Hillary, though you wouldn't know it from our own Rec lists.
Look, I'm not saying you need to cheer her on anytime between now and 2016, you don't have to vote for her, you can trumpet up Warren or Pelosi or whoever you want; just don't undermine Hillary's chances in the process. Not unless and not until a more viable candidate surfaces. You don't like how chummy she is with Wall Street? You don't like how much she stands for the military industrial complex? I'd hate to tell you what the Republican candidate is gonna be like. Some of these same arguments also could be and have been leveled at Obama; would you rather have had President McCain these last 6 years, or President Romney these last 2? I'm not saying Hillary is the perfect candidate, but I'd give her one or two Supreme Court Justice appointees any day of the week.
But, I digress. The point is, what I'm saying is, every political move the Democratic Party makes, to go Left or Right or kittycorner or whatever, should be judged on how it stands in light of re-taking the White House in 2016. And if you think there ever comes a time when there is just too much capitulation to justify regaining the White House: you might be right. But that's a pie you save for after our candidate is in the Oval Office.
Of course, one could argue that I am over-exaggerating the situation. Democrats have accomplished a lot even with this Supreme Court. There is hope that having Democratic control of Congress would be enough to undue some of the damage through legislation, but that doesn't stop the usual suspects on the bench from undoing anything any Democrat representatives do from here on out. That has been their M.O. this whole time.
Therefore, if anyone ever questions if winning the White House is that important, if they suggest that there is no difference between having a Republican or a Democrat in the White House, if they even entertain the notion that what happens in these upper echelons of our political realm could affect us so much down here in the average American's world: the only thing you need to point to is the Supreme Court, in all of its grandiose tyranny.