Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden has refused to make his policy on Supreme Court packing clear saying that voters don't deserve to know if he will or not. National Review. Many Democrats have suggested changing the size of the court in response to the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the presumptive confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, which would leave the court with a supposed 6-3 conservative majority. Neither Joe Biden or VP candidate Kamala Harris have answered if they would pack the court or not, saying the issue is a distraction. Biden went even further saying that voters would find out about his thoughts on the issue after he was elected president.
The relevant exchange can be seen in the tweet below.
Biden gets pressed on court-packing in every interview, but this answer to @KTNV is new:@RossDiMattei: "Don't the voters deserve to know-"@JoeBiden: "No they don't deserve- I'm not gonna play his game. He'd love... that to be the discussion instead of what he's doing now." pic.twitter.com/BpIxTrborp
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) October 10, 2020
My Comment:
Biden and Harris' argument is that talking about this distracts against the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, which doesn't hold water to me. First of all, every President who has had an opening before an election has attempted to fill it, even Barack Obama, so it's not like President Trump's actions here are at all unusual. I do appreciate the irony of arguing that the question is changing the subject when your answer to the question is "let's change the subject".
Regardless of what Biden and Harris' actual policy on this issue is, the two of them are not handling the issue well at all. Harris was extremely evasive at the debate earlier in the week and it's a major reason why she lost. And Biden? How could you answer that question any worse then the way has been doing? Saying voters don't deserve to know or that we would find out after he's elected? Be evasive if you want but going that far is just insulting the voter's intelligence.
I know why Biden and Harris are refusing to answer the question though, it's a lose lose for them if they do. Not that there aren't repercussions for them not answering. There are obvious downsides in not doing it as it makes them look evasive and dishonest. And it means one of the most important policy pillars of the Democratic Party remains unknown to the voters.
But it would be a disaster for them if they answered the question. If they say no they aren't going to stack the Supreme Court, it means their progressive "woke" allies are going to be apoplectic. They want power for power's own sake and have no concern about the consequences such a move would mean. Plus they want to do everything they can to destroy anything and everything that the President has accomplished in his first term. These voters are already squishy enough and if they confirm that the woke left isn't going to get everything or anything they want they will likely stay home or vote for a third party candidate.
And if they say they are going to stack the Supreme Court? It's not going to play well. As I said above, many voters would see it as petty vengeance that has no other purpose than being a power grab. People would hate the end run around the voters and the idea that the conservative court, which was fairly won, should be so unfairly taken away. Republicans would be furious and would vote in record numbers and large numbers of independents would be so disgusted they would vote for President Trump out of spite (though despite what the polling says I think that will happen regardless).
So what would a Biden/Harris ticket actually do on the Supreme Court? I'm not sure. My brain says that nobody could be that stupid as packing the Supreme Court seems like one of only a couple ways that could start a civil war in this country (with major gun control legislation being the other one). It would be a clear signal that the Democrats no longer care about anything else but power and a ton of people would reject it. I don't think it would pass in Congress even if the Democrats managed to take both the House and the Senate as outside of the most liberal districts anyone who voted for it would be signing the death warrant for their political careers.
On the other hand, I thought the 2016 defeat would have led to some retrospection as well and result in a push to the center. This didn't happen and instead we have seen the Democrats double down on every bad idea they have ever had. Stacking the Supreme Court is not only stupid, it's self defeating and dangerous so of course the Democrats would try to do it. I hope I am wrong but in the unlikely event that Biden and Harris win I'm fully prepared for a civil war breaking out because they legitimately seem to stupid to avoid one.
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