The level of hypocrisy that the Republican Party has continuously exhibited over the past 12 or so years is dizzying at times. It’s one of the main reasons why someone like Donald Trump has been able to rise to the position of power he has. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing has very predictably led to another moral and political crossroads for the GOP. The Republican Senate’s refusal to even vote on President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, after Justice Antonin Scalia died was destined to be brought into question during the Trump administration.
Anyone who was paying attention and was the least bit critical of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s history of lying knew that McConnell’s excuse was bogus. It was less than an hour after the announcement of Ginsburg’s passing that McConnell made it clear his intention to push through another Supreme Court justice. Other Republican senators, like Ted Cruz—best known for groveling at the foot of a man who accused his father of conspiring to murder President John F, Kennedy and publicly calling his wife an ugly monster—has championed this position. George Stephanopoulos had Cruz on his show this Sunday to reconcile his hypocritical position.
Stephanopoulos started by playing video of Cruz in 2016 saying how “there’s a long tradition of how you don’t do this in an election year.” Cruz—who now has a beard, probably in the hope of tricking the public into thinking that he’s a different person now—began by talking about how great Justice Ginsburg was. It’s a nice sentiment, a sideshow to obfuscate from the question being asked, and mostly self-serving as Cruz spent a good amount of time reminding the audience that he, Ted Cruz, presented in front of the Ginsburg Supreme Court numerous times. Thanks, Ted, you’re still a lying craven sack of rotten banana peels.
Stephanopoulos, who really isn’t up to the task of pressing people beyond the gamesmanship of politics, asks Cruz to admit that his position—that the Republican Party should push through a Supreme Court justice in “an election year”—is more about politics than precedent. Cruz then goes on a long-winded and completely false trip to explain how what the Republican Party was saying in 2016 was both that the American people should be allowed to pick the next person, and that in so doing, they have now made that decision forever and so the rules don’t apply anymore.
It isn’t surprising. It’s an argument that any lawyer with zero scruples would make. Like any and all statements, there are always loopholes, and it is this verbal rationalization that allows people like Cruz and the people who vote for people like Cruz to pretend they aren’t completely and utterly full of shit. But full of shit they are, and Cruz is known for being one of the more garishly power-hungry ogres of the bunch. The rest of the interview includes Cruz saying that Joe Biden is setting terrible precedents by questioning the upcoming election’s potential validity—something that Donald Trump is doing and Biden has only reacted to. Finally, Stephanopoulos asks Cruz whether or not he would pledge that any viable Supreme Court justice candidate be at least a supporter of Roe v. Wade as settled law.
SEN. TED CRUZ: Well, I don’t believe that’s the right question to ask.
You can roll your eyes now, but hold tightly to your seat because ...
CRUZ: You know, I mentioned a minute ago, my book I have—One Vote Away—that’s coming out in a couple of weeks. I have an entire chapter dedicated to how you should make Supreme Court nominations.
I almost got vertigo there. Cruz goes on to outline the need for Republican nominees to have a “proven record” of being an ultra right-wing looney toon. The transparent desire to be president is so grotesque it isn’t a surprise that Cruz was trounced by Trump.
The Republican Party has made it clear time and time again that they have very little interest in democracy or justice or morality. They are interested in power, and more specifically, maintaining their power at a time in history where their stated ideologies are not simply unpopular, they have been proven societal failures. It is time to win this election, abolish the filibuster, and expand the Supreme Court. We need a democracy of the people, for the people, and by the people.