The Republican Party likes to remind people that Abraham Lincoln was a “Republican.” They like to do this because for all of their talk about “Founding Fathers” and the history of our country, the Republican Party is to history what a pile of balloons inside of a garbage fire is to history. The comparison is absurd.
During Wednesday night’s debate, Mike Pence attempted to create a new revisionist reasoning for why the Republican Party should ram through a new Supreme Court justice after having taken away President Obama’s pick of Merrick Garland four years ago. The general allegation that Pence was making was something about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are trying to pack the courts … with a Supreme Court that is filled with illegitimate conservative judges chosen by unpopular presidents? Who knows? But it brought one the of the highlights of the night out of Sen. Harris, who lit up at the chance to talk about real history.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: I'm so glad we went through a little history lesson. Let's do that a little bit more. In 1864, one of the, I think, political heroes certainly of the president—and I assume also of you—Abraham Lincoln. He was up for reelection, it was 27 days before the election. And a seat became open on the United States Supreme Court. Abraham Lincoln's party was in charge not only of the White House but the Senate. But Honest Abe said, It's not the right thing to do. The American people deserve to make the decision about who will be the next president of the United States. And then that person can select who will serve for a lifetime on the highest court of our land. And so Joe and I are very clear: The American people are voting right now. And it should be their decision about who will serve on this most important body for a lifetime.
Amen to that.
