Only the subject in this case is American democracy. Because as Bernie Sanders said in a speech this past week, "This is not just an election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy." Sen. Sanders on Trump's 'threat to our democracy' PBS Newshour 09/24/2020:
But my favorite bellwether for mainstream Beltway Village commentary, the Mark Shields and Bobo Brooks weekly gab fest, provides a picture that fits into the mood of mourning, and of dread that liberal democracy is the US is on the verge of a sad turning point, Shields and Brooks on Ginsburg’s legacy, Trump’s election rhetoric PBS Newshour 09/25/2020:
Short version of the discussion on Trump's new Supreme Court nominee, rightwing Catholic/Pentecostal theocrat Amy Coney Barrett:
Bobo (verbally finger wagging): It would be very, very naughty For Democrats to challenge Bennett's qualification to be a Supreme Court Justice in any way.
Shields: David's absolutely right. Nothing could be worse than for the Democrats to fight for their own side in this confrontation, which the Democrats shouldn't treat as a confrontation at all.
More literally:
Bobo:
Amy Coney Barrett also has values. She's a conservative. She is well-regarded. When she was Supreme Court clerk to Antonin Scalia, all of the clerks, regardless of party affiliation, admired her. When she was on the Notre Dame Law faculty, all of the faculty members, regardless of party ideology, admired her, that, personally, she seems — I have never met her.Shields:
She seems reputed to be a wonderful person. But she has a conservative record. She was a law professor for a long time and wrote a lot of articles, some of which were controversial and, in her 2017 confirmation hearings, were brought up.
I think it'll be hard to mount personal attacks, given what we know now. But there will be some conservative attacks. [Presumably meaning attacks on her conservatism]
She — you could say, if you're a conservative, she's probably not going to be John Roberts. She is a true-blue and committed conservative.You get the drift.
But I would point out, as David laid out sort of the political land mines for Democrats, she has admirable personal credentials, the mother of seven, two adopted children. She brought a Down syndrome pregnancy to birth, a child, is raising it, and was endorsed by both, not only the conservative members of the law faculty at Notre Dame, but all the liberals as well.
I think it's a potential land mine for both sides. To the degree that abortion becomes the centerpiece issue, it's going to be a problem for Republicans among suburban women. To the degree that it becomes an issue and the Democrats go on the offensive against Amy Coney Barrett, then Joe Biden's hopes of reaching out across to blue-collar white voters who had flirted with Trump in the past, maybe former Democrats, becomes a problem.
And I think if, in fact, there is any sort of a mean personal attack mounted against her, it will only — it will only hurt the Democrats.
Both cheerfully ignored the immediate effect of her approval for the Court could mean for Trump's brazenly advertised intentions to steal the election to stay in power. Shields did conclude the segment with a sadly expressed hope "that there is some beat [sic] of a soul still left in the party of Abraham Lincoln."
Why he may think such a hope is realistic in any way, he didn't say.
But appointing another far-right hack to the Supreme Court actually is a very big deal, especially at this possibly very late date in the history of American democracy as we've know it.
Michael O’Loughlin writing for the Jesuit America gives a carefully Mugmump description of the male-supremacist, theocratic "ecumenical" group with which Barrett is closely associated, Explainer: Amy Coney Barrett’s relationship with People of Praise 09/24/2020.
See also:
- Stephanie Mencimer, It’s Not Anti-Catholic to Ask Amy Coney Barrett About Her Religious Group “People of Praise” Mother Jones 09/24/2020
- Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Here’s What To Know About People Of Praise, The Christian Group Amy Coney Barrett Belongs To Forbes 09/26/2020
- Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Amy Coney Barrett: spotlight falls on secretive Catholic group People of Praise Guardian 09/26/2020
- Chrissy Stroop, Why the Media and Democrats Should Reject the Christian Rights's Pearl-Clutching and Address Problematic Religious Views Religion Dispatches 09/25/2020:
[Updated to correct misspelling of Amy Coney Barrett's name]No one is raising objections to the possible nomination of Barrett for a SCOTUS seat on the basis of her being a Christian. If anyone actually contended that Christian faith is disqualifying, that would leave very few eligible appointees to any position in a majority Christian nation. But to effectively push back on the flood of gaslighting currently being unleashed by the Christian Right, we need to flip the script.
Lord knows (if you’ll pardon the expression), the Democratic Party is far from godless. But, while God talk in the party may sometimes annoy non-religious Democrats, no serious liberal argues that adherence to a religion itself is disqualifying for public office, which would be to advocate for an unconstitutional position. The difference is this: in the vast majority of cases, Democrats of faith understand their religious commitments as compatible with an approach to pluralism that provides robust equality for all in the public square. Right-wing Christians, on the other hand, espouse an anti-pluralist understanding of their faith, using and abusing the rhetoric of “religious freedom” to demand the right to be, as it were, “more equal than others.”
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