There will be theater and announcements and maybe even a few process plays, but with Dems in the minority in the Senate and there being roughly 100 days until a new Senate, there’s little we can do to stop them from ramming through a pick.
If you doubt that they will do it, answer the question why they shouldn’t?
Fairness?
Integrity?
Respect for the institution?
We’re talking Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.
This is about one thing and one thing only: POWER.
If Trump wins the election, his pick will be seated, even if the Dems win the Senate. As long as his pick is even marginally “qualified” (not what we would want, but objectively capable of doing the job), the claim would be the American people spoke and he should get what he wants. And while the Repubs would still have the Senate, even if just for a few more weeks, they’d confirm.
If Trump loses the election but the Repubs hold the Senate, Mitch would still confirm. Why would he give Joe Biden the pick when the threat of expanding the court disappeared with the Republicans winning the Senate? Per above, please don’t try answering with fairness, integrity, etc..
Finally if Trump loses and the Senate switches hands, what does Mitch have to lose? Let the Dems try to kill the filibuster and expand the Court. He’d just as soon bet on the Dems being weak-kneed and not going through or being successful with one or both. And even if they did manage to be successful, it would be an exercise of the only thing he understands: POWER.
So while we should do everything we can to stop them from replacing her, we must be realistic in the expectation that they will replace her and not be defeated by that. We need to be doing everything we can to ensure Trump and the Republican Senate gets turned out, then we can do what we need to do: exercise POWER.
We need to stop learning the lesson that elections have consequences and start teaching that lesson.