Imagine waking up tomorrow to learn that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, will no longer be on the Supreme Court. If you're a Democrat, or a Liberal, or an Independent, who is already troubled by the chaos the Trump presidency is unleashing on the country, how would that strike you?
How would you feel knowing that the Republicans would set an automatic replacement machinery in motion faster than a teardrop would vaporize on a blast furnace? How would you feel realizing that no matter the vigorous protest that might come from your end of the political spectrum that nothing could stop the Republican-controlled Senate from successfully installing a right-wing judge in place of a reliably liberal Ginsburg?
Yes, all Republican evil eyes are on her. They want our own dear RBG to die or retire, and quickly, too.
Now don’t kid yourself by being dismissive of the possibility of that happening just because we have been assured by the apex court that Ginsburg, who went under the knife recently for cancerous nodules in her lung, is making progress in her recovery and could in fact return to the bench soon.
For progressives, these have been quite dark, despairing times. Were the above-sketched scenario to happen, I guarantee the agonized wails from them would be so loud the earth could quake right from its pillars to its very foundations. But even such cries of tumult would pale in comparison to the derisive cackles of jubilation from Republicans already licking their chops over the prospect of notching up a third Supreme Court appointment less than three years into the Trump administration.
The last midterms saw massive gains for the opposition: the Democrats won 40 House seats and took over control of a key arm of Congress. That didn't come about simply because Trump was a black hole that sucked in Republican fortunes in the congressional elections. It happened because Democrats and Liberals --- and Independents --- avoided their one fatal error in 2016 when they went into that presidential election fractured as a force and got trounced. But the Democrats' new-found majority in the House is of no consequence when it comes to confirming judges for the courts. That is simply outside its prerogative. So, it cannot stop a likely Republican juggernaut either in the event of the not-too-implausible scenario under consideration. And nothing would please Trump more than to score another Pyrrhic victory for his Republican base. It accomplishes twin objectives for him. It solidifies his vise-grip on that increasingly nihilistic base and, following that, ensures his one purposive quest in the Oval Office: the dismantling of American democracy.
What then to do? Well, there doesn’t seem to be much left to do other than to hope and pray. Democrats and all progressives, regardless of their ideological hues, should pray that Ginsburg, no matter how debilitated she might be from her condition and age, should just manage to hang on there until after the next election when a possible Democratic president could fill a vacancy created by her retirement. For the moment, everyone’s attention is entirely focused on the Trump Shutdown. But anyone who desires peace and order and conformity to democratic norms should not forget that Ginsburg’s survival is equally as important and worthy of attention: she’s one of the few last standing bridges to all that America has left of her liberal democratic order.