I bet Mitt Romney isn’t going to be invited to any in the immediate future.
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Jackson was a good choice.
When he nominates Lucy Koh next (which he should), he shouldn’t say anything about the fact that she’s an Asian woman. He should simply describe her as the most qualified candidate (which is some areas, like technology law, is pretty indisputable). I think a lot of the political noise around Jackson’s nomination was unnecessary.
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Pointing out that Jackson’s appointment was an important milestone toward making the Supreme Court look more like the nation it’s supposed to represent was a legit reason for celebration. Republicans were going to smear her regardless of whether the Democrats publicly acknowledged that fact.
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That’s different from pointing it out in advance. We would have noticed anyway.
What’s wrong with pointing it out?
Why must progressives be silent when they achieve important social milestones?
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Because it lets opponents who are racist claim that that’s the reason she was appointed, hence the noise. Better to make them less ambiguously oppose her simply because they are racist.
It also distorts the reason to celebrate: this is an accomplishment for her, for her community, and for America, but the prior announcement positions it as an accomplishment for Biden, as an attempt to signpost how progressive his administration is.
The prior announcement was not necessary for him to make the appointment, or for us to celebrate the achievement, and for that reason was just an unnecessary injection of politics.
The last two vacancies were due to death; this time it’s due to retirement.
She just won’t be sworn in until Breyer officially steps down this summer, when the current SCOTUS term expires.
They do the same thing here, except that it starts at least a year or so before the actual elections.
It gets tiresome.
We should be so lucky.
Interesting question. I would think she would be eligible to be sworn in immediately in order to fill the vacancy, then another candidate nominated & confirmed to fill the upcoming vacancy.
It’s not like seats are reserved for one party or the other, despite what the FDC seems to think.
That’s the more likely scenario, re: removal. Or maybe a big chunk of chloresterol will break loose from the inside of an artery & find a new home in an unfortunate location…
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Or we could just celebrate the milestone regardless of what the racists say or do about it. Policing one’s own speech out of fear for how said speech might be perceived or misrepresented by bigots is a loser’s game. Racists are gonna racist no matter what progressives do.
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I never suggested otherwise. Of course we can celebrate the milestone, and Biden can celebrate the milestone. What I thought was unnecessary was Biden’s preannouncement of the criteria for selection.
ETA: And just to make it clearer, I have no problem with using the criterion in the selection. I just don’t think anything positive was served by stating it as he did.
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So it was doing something good, but it was bad to point out it was doing something good, because racists might pretend they were reacting to it not being good. I’m…not sure that follows.
I am sure that the Democratic party trying hard not to give any rope to liars who are happy to fabricate their own, at the expense of making attempts to reach out to the people whose support they actually need to win elections, has been a mistake every time. The sooner we stop tying ourselves into knots over what the racists might say about things, the better.
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That’s just poor politics.
They were always going to reject and vilify her. Their goal was and has been to deny dems any seats in the court. That’s akin to saying they never would have tried to smear her with pedophilia bullshit if you kissed their toe.
It was much better politics to tell one of your most important voting blocks that you were keeping a promise you made. To show strongly and unabashedly that you support your stated values of diversity.
And to show republicans that you have a spine and are willing - and able - to kick their asses regardless of their repulsive actions and threats.
We don’t negotiate with domestic terrorists.
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because rousing the base never helped win an election?
because acknowledging your most faithful constituency is bad politics?
because cowering before your most racist opponents is good politics?
i’m stumped, i can’t think of a single good reason not to have proclaimed his intentions from the campaign trail to the nomination.
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Obviously I disagree. The way to show a voting block that you intend to keep a promise is to keep the promise. Saying just before, “I am now commencing to keep the promise” puts the attention on oneself, where it doesn’t belong.
In this case I don’t think anyone is giving Biden additional positive credit for just making the statement, but it gave an unnecessary extra talking point to the other side, and I know from seeing the ensuing discussion elsewhere that this seems to not just be restricted to the worst parts of the QOP.
However, I also think this has become a distraction from a thread that should be pure celebration – I didn’t mean for that to happen – so I will shut up now.
Bullshit.
Representation matters, and the lack of it there was glaring. That’s worth saying so, no matter how much white people think doing so is “unnecessary.”
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Most racist and most prone to operate in bad faith. One might as well try to portray Neville Chamberlain as an exemplar of good politics post-Munich.
Even so, this time the Dem establishment is not cowering despite its history of appeasing the GOP. Instead they – along with the progressive wing --made it clear from the moment she was nominated that that her approval would be a win and historic milestone and are now rightly celebrating it as such.
From what I gather, though, some older white Dems are still fearful that doing so might alienate the mythical white “independent” Boomer swing voters they still think are the key to making the Dems’ margin (forget about this win for racial and gender representation inspiring progressives and Black voters and young people – clearly they’re irrelevant. /s)
And we don’t choose to fight on our opponents’ territory and terms where there’s nothing substantial forcing us to do so. That’s a surefire formula for losing. As a famous fighting liberal known for being a master of good politics said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. It’s time that Dems re-discover that spirit.
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It was fine when Bush said he would nominate a Black man and then nominated Thomas (after all, Marshall was retiring and what’s the difference, right? /s). It was fine when St. Reagan announced in advance his intention to nominate a woman before putting forth O’Connor. Biden announces his intent to put a Black woman on the bench and now there’s a huge uproar about leftist radical woke identity politics?
It’s all bullshit.
Biden could have put forth a typical centrist milquetoast white dude like, oh let’s just say for the purpose of example, Merrick Garland, and there would have still been outrage.
The Republicans did everything they could to smear Jackson and she never lost her cool. She’s on the bench now and while the court balance is unchanged, it’s still an important milestone.
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As a survivor of abuse – which is entwined with racism – I can assure you that abuse is never stopped by appeasement.
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Time to stop pretending if we are just just quiet enough that the fascists will love and respect us. Either you’re in favor of an equitable world, or you are not. Either you are in favor of facts, or you are not.
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Politicians typically run on, and are judged by, the ability to keep the promises they make on the campaign trail. So doesn’t it make a certain degree of sense for them to point it out when they do manage to accomplish something they swore to do?
This bothers me. It seems to assume there’s some rulebook or set of standards in modern politics. If only the poor Democrats used exactly the right words and phrases, if only they’d act by some exact protocol or propriety, why then of course the Republicans will just roll over and concede with grace and respect!
It’s all too obvious that if the Republicans can’t easily find a talking point to suit their purposes, they will invent one, and they clearly no longer care if it’s truthful or if it’s complete and utter bullshit. They claim Covid isn’t real and masks and vaccinations are against their “freedoms.” They lie about Critical Race Theory being “indoctrination.” They smear LGBTQ+ people and their supporters as “groomers” and pedophiles. There is no longer any way to “play fair” with them. There is no longer any way to appeal to whatever “better natures” they and their party might have once had, because they’ve thrown them all away in their neverending quest for power and control over everything and everyone. No attempt at reason or appeasement will ever satisfy them.
So since any attempt to play by the Republicans’ Calvinball-style rules is bound to fail… there’s no point in trying. Dems should act boldly, speak clearly, deliver on their platform promises, and forget once and for all about placating their opponents.
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