There has been a fair amount of angst over what Democrats should do about Justice Kennedy’s last gift to Big Money, the GOP and Trump: another Supreme Court vacancy. Mitch McConnell will attempt to ram through Trump’s nominee ASAP, before the November elections; Trump is getting ready to name who it will be.
Democratic leadership can’t decide to whether to go all out in opposing it, or just make pro-forma objections because they know they can’t win. Kevin Drum asks: Should Democrats Go to the Mattresses Over the Supreme Court? He lists the pros and cons. Michael Tomasky looks at the matter and says Hell Yes!! The Right Has Won the Supreme Court. Now What? is a call to arms.
But there is no doubt among Team Red about what to do.
American Crossroads is planning an all-out offensive to sell Trump’s pick in the most apocalyptic terms. They plan to use it to turn out the base to keep control of the Senate and to portray the “extreme left Democrats” in the most incendiary terms.
NPR's Noel King recently talked with Steven Law of the Republican superPAC American Crossroads in an interview heard on Morning Edition. The superPAC is linked to Mitch McConnell and its purpose is to elect Republican senators.
I’ve put together a transcript below. The interview is only 4 minutes long — hear exactly what we’re up against. To listen to Law is to hear how expertly Law frames issues by continually referring to conservatives as mainstream, while characterizing Democrats as leftists, and so on. The upset election of Ocasio-Cortez is used to show how Democrats are in an “ideological identity crisis” and worried about the party shifting leftward.
Here’s the transcript, below the audio link. If you play the audio while reading the words, you can hear how tone and emphasis shade the meaning. Compare the NPR interview and the nice, polite, affable Steven Law in the studio with the sample from the ad.
Noel King: The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court will have far-reaching implications for the court but also for the midterm elections this year. Here’s President Trump speaking on Wednesday night after Kennedy’s announcement.
“Justice Kennedy‘s retirement makes the issue of Senate control one of the vital issues of our time. The most important thing we can do.”
King: Okay for more on how American conservatives are thinking about all of this we are joined by a top Republican fundraiser Steven Law. Steven Law is the president and CEO of the superPAC American Crossroads. That’s an organization linked to majority leader Mitch McConnell and dedicated to electing Republicans to the Senate. Thank you for being here Mr. Law.
Steven Law: Thank you.
King: All right, so your organization released a major ad buy in 10 swing states yesterday morning to support a conservative to replace Anthony Kennedy on the bench. Let’s take a listen to one of those ads:
(Dramatic music) A new vacancy on the Supreme Court. “Justice Anthony Kennedy will be retiring.” And our freedom hangs in the balance. But the far left will stop at nothing to block President Trump’s choice. (Ad fades out.)
King: All right, our freedom hangs in the balance. A lot of observers including Pres. Trump have seen several notable recent rulings from the court as being in line with conservative values. So I’m curious. What are the issues where you think freedom hangs in the balance?
Law: Well we think it’s important that as voters in various states, particularly states where we’ve run these ads, that they start to focus on what’s at stake. It’s important that we continue the mainstream conservative jurisprudence that we’ve seen from the Supreme Court in recent years and that we put another justice on the court who’s in that same conservative mainstream that we have with Justice Neil Gorsuch.
King: It’s worth noting that a lot of progressives think it’s their constituents freedom that hangs in the balance. People say they’re concerned about abortion rights, they’re concerned about same-sex marriage, they’re concerned about voting rights. What do you think?
Law: I think if you look at it this unprecedented step that Pres. Trump took during the campaign to issue a list of 25 jurists and one senator, Mike Lee, who he would pick from and from whom he also chose Neil Gorsuch, what you see is a list of mainstream conservative jurists, people who are dedicated to strict construction of laws and the constitution, but who are also conservative in their view of judicial philosophy and the role of stare decisis. We’ll have a good debate and a confirmation process that will be very important to all this, where the views of whoever the Presidents nominee is will be fully explored
King: Let me ask you about that list of 25 names. Are there any, is there one that stands out to you as the best possible pick?
Law: You know, I think there’re several who stand out as compelling picks. You know that the person widely rumored as the runner-up to Neil Gorsuch, Thomas Hardiman, has a great a personal story, a kind of hardscrabble upbringing. Obviously Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland really kind of comes out of the Kennedy school so he would have certain things in his favor. Also Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana had a fairly contentious confirmation process, but it is that kind of experience that that prepares you for what will almost inevitably be a fairly grueling confirmation process for this judicial position as well.
King: Let me ask you one more question. This week after political newcomer and self-identified socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat out Joe Crowley, the #4 in the Democratic leadership, you wrote on Facebook that this is a game changer. What did you mean by that?
Law: Why I think it means that the Democratic Party is going through an ideological identity crisis, and it will make every Democrat who has to vote on this be at least as worried about the national Democratic Party and how it’s shifting leftward as they are about what their own constituents want, if they want them to support Pres. Trump’s choice.
King: Steven law is the president and CEO of the conservative superPAC American Crossroads. Steven thank you.
Law: Thank you as well
(I’ve put some key words in bold type for emphasis to emphasize the talking points that are being raised and words that have a particular impact on different audiences.)
While Democratic leaders worry about “keeping their powder dry” for fights they know they can win, they somehow never get around to fighting for anything. Every retreat leaves them in a worse tactical position, because that allows Republicans to redraw the battle lines for the next fight and define what the fight is about. Then they wonder where their troops went if and when they do decide to fight. Mitch McConnell did not get where he is today by holding back and waiting for the right moment — he made those moments with tools like American Crossroads.
This is what we have to match and overcome. Forward momentum is what we have to build. We may fight and lose, but if we never fight at all we are guaranteed to lose.
Law’s interview shows that the Republicans are going all-out to define this fight on their terms and will use it to rally their base to keep control of the senate while portraying Democrats as becoming even more extreme and out of the mainstream. What do you think? How much of a fight should Democrats put up over the next Supreme Court pick?