Monday, October 12, 2020

Chaos In The Courts

It seems pretty obvious that Kamala Harris, through her mannequin, Joe Biden, plans to pack the Supreme Court. Let's say they win the election and then increase the number of justices from the current 9 to 13. I picked 13 because it's a lucky number.

If things go desperately sideways during the Harris administration and, despite the best efforts of their allies in the entertainment industry, academia and the news media, a Republican somehow wins in 2024, what will happen? Well, precedent having been set, that president will pack the court, too and increase the justice count from 13 to 17.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Since all the other courts draw their logical foundations from SCOTUS rulings, this will create wild whiplash in our legal system. One year, it will be perfectly normal to marry a goat and the next year it will be against the law. No one will be able to predict anything. 

Bookworm has an excellent post on this as well, taking things in a darker direction.

Court packing is one of the first — and inevitably irreversible — steps in deconstructing a Constitutional government and replacing it with a socialist police state.  There are many examples throughout history, but most recently, remember this from 2004, when Hugo Chavez took the first step in turning his country into a one-party socialist nightmare:

The Venezuelan Congress dealt a severe blow to judicial independence by packing the country’s Supreme Court with 12 new justices, Human Rights Watch said today. A majority of the ruling coalition, dominated by President Hugo Chávez’s party, named the justices late yesterday, filling seats created by a law passed in May that expanded the court’s size by more than half.

As I watch the left go completely insane and run towards instability as fast as they can, I've come to a simple conclusion. 

A nation with a small and limited government is the most stable.

If your political enemies don't get a lot of power when they win elections, then you can deal with watching their smug, ugly faces contort into smiles of victory every few years. It's no big deal. On the other hand, if they get tremendous power when they win, then you'd best be stocking up on ammo right now. 

Uh oh.

4 comments:

tim eisele said...

"If your political enemies don't get a lot of power when they win elections, then you can deal with watching their smug, ugly faces contort into smiles of victory every few years. It's no big deal. On the other hand, if they get tremendous power when they win, then you'd best be stocking up on ammo right now. "

That's actually something that has been on my mind for a long time. I don't want either the Republicans or the Democrats to have untrammeled power. Given my choice, I'd eliminate political parties altogether, but since that isn't something I see a way to achieve, the only thing I can see to do is to play them off against each other.

That said, I'm considering two scenarios:
1. Biden wins the Presidency, the Democrats have a majority in the House and an essentially-tied Senate, and the Supreme Court has switched to a nominally-conservative majority. The Democrats would be in a position to push through some things, but only if they can cut deals with the Republicans. And with a Democrat in the White House, the Republicans will be in a position to campaign against him, and increase the Republican majority in the Senate while whittling back the Democratic House majority in the next election. Democrats would have the balance of power for two years, but would still be in a position to be thwarted. In particular, even if they try to do it, they could almost certainly be prevented from packing the Supreme Court. And then when Biden's term ends (he is almost certainly a one-termer), regardless of whether a Democrat or a Republican wins in 2024, Congress will be pretty balanced between the two parties and unable to do anything really one-sided.

2. Trump wins the Presidency and the Supreme Court still has a conservative majority, but the Democrats have a House majority and a tied senate. Trump would be essentially unable to do anything without cutting a deal with the Democrats, but he would still be a big, fat target for the Democrats to campaign against. And Trump is such an easy person to hate that, in the next mid-term elections, the Republicans are almost certain to completely lose control of the House and push the Senate over to the Democrats. This would set up the 2024 election for a big Democratic win, handing them both the Presidency and substantial majorities in Congress that would be in a position to steamroll over the Republicans.

Of those two scenarios, I think the first one ends with a situation in 2024 that is less subject to abuse of power than the second one does.

K T Cat said...

I don't want either the Republicans or the Democrats to have untrammeled power.

So much this. I know I come across as a Republican honk, but I don't think they have the answers, either, except when their answer is to preserve the Constitution. If I could wave a magic wand, I'd repeal every spending bill and regulation in reverse-chronological order until the budget was balanced. If we didn't need that whatever-it-is so desperately before, then we can probably get along without it now.

Almost everyone in politics at the national level is the kind of smarmy creep who ran for class president in 6th grade. I didn't like them then, either.

As for the Biden scenario, I think you're being a bit naive. Check out the Bookworm link for more. This is not your father's Democrats.

Mostly Nothing said...

Interesting scenarios, Tim. I can almost see both.

I've heard many parts of the UP are pretty anti-mask, like up north in Minnesota is. I can't imagine Houghton/Hancock is, is it?

I voted last night, absentee. I had been fully expecting to go to the polls on election day, but 2 weeks ago we were self quarantined as my wife had been exposed at school. And we don't believe it to be the last time that will happen. I was able to do it in front of my computer, and look up why there was a supreme court justice (MN) being challenged. And I could look up the token people conned into running against the in-trenched incumbents.

KT, I don't see Biden as Kamala's puppet. I see a star chamber pulling his strings. The Manchurian Canidate?

tim eisele said...

MN:
It was not so much "anti-mask" as "lax-mask" through the summer. But between it getting cooler (making mask-wearing much more comfortable) and the sudden surge in local cases starting in September (, most people are wearing masks now and I don't actually hear anyone complaining particularly.

There are a lot of Trump flags and yard signs, particularly outside of town.

The masks do seem to work, by the way. No one in my family has had a cold, flu, or one of the contagious vomiting/diarrhea diseases since we started wearing them in March, almost 8 months ago. This is something of a record for us.