September 28, 2020
Trump’s Saturday nomination of Amy Coney Barrett was no surprise to the media or awaiting public. Her name had been prominently discussed during the 2018 Kavanaugh nomination, and by all accounts, she’s a brilliant originalist with all of the right credentials, and to the delight of conservatives, even clerked for, learned from, and embodies the legacy of Justice Scalia.
The optics of the ceremony were a patriotic continuation of the American flag-clad RNC. Stars and stripes brilliantly adorned every angle and cranny of the White House exterior. I joked with my kids that the RNC should’ve had a Twitter game going with an American flag count game similar to “how many jelly beans are in the jar?” In any case, the nomination was classy and polished, standard for a Trump announcement. Amy Coney Barrett’s doting of her family, graceful respects paid to the late RBG, simple explanation of her judicial philosophies, and proclaimed love for her country and the Constitution made it hard to imagine how the left will be shortly trying to destroy her. So far, we’ve heard objections to her extreme conservative views, her fanatical Catholic faith and cult-like associations akin to a Handmaid’s Tale, her perceived inability to effectively parent seven young children with a high-profile career. Of course, Trump knows that her reputation, personally and professionally, is pristine. There will be no Christine Blasey Fords or Julie Swetnicks crawling out of the woodwork to launch hearing-delaying sexual assault claims.
Republican senators say they’ll have the votes they need to get her confirmed without delay (presumably before the election). Twitterverse has picked up on RBG’s adoring fans taking offense to an “ACB” label of the conservative woman likely to replace her. So other than a war of initials, complaints/fear of what happens to Obamacare and abortion rights under a presumed 6-3 conservative-leaning SCOTUS, threats from some democrats to boycott meetings and/or hearings, and discussions about whether religious faith and interpretation of the law can coexist, there is no indication that we’ll see much legitimate opposition to the appointment.
Amy Coney Barrett talked about the example that Scalia and Ginsburg set of true friendship despite opposing views, a lesson that our country desperately needs right now. I read one gracious Bloomberg opinion piece by Noah Feldman, someone who strongly disagrees with ACB’s philosophies, but modeled the same civility lesson that Scalia & Ginsburg offered us. I encourage you to read it and model it.
It’s easy to find the scathing opinion pieces; here’s one that a high-IQ leftist Facebook friend of mine has been raving about. In her piece explaining the indefensible positions of Amy Coney Barrett, Author Elie Mystal admits to blindly participating in a religion that she neither understands nor believes in, while berating anyone who wouldn’t uphold abortion rights. “I’m Catholic myself (“raised Catholic,” I think, is the official term for somebody like me who is pretty sure God doesn’t exist but baptizes their kids to hedge that bet).”
The contrast in those two pieces is striking, and you can decide which seems more credible.
In other news, the Trump tax return “bombshell” from the New York Times is the best example of distraction the left could produce from the overwhelming GOP victory of the Supreme Court announcement this weekend. This bombshell has been dropped before, in slightly less detail, and still comes as a surprise to no one (that a high profile businessman would have a finance staff that plans and operates to minimize/avoid income tax). More on this later.
Have a great Monday.
Conservatively Jennifer 