Supreme Court rescued Trump

     "Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewell in his head."

Gorsuch

                William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Trump called the Supreme Court decisions "shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans."  

Trump should thank the Supreme Court. It is saving Republicans from themselves. 

"Do you get the impression the Supreme Court doesn't like me?" Donald Trump asked, in a tweet yesterday.  

The tweet was one of a series by Trump and other Republicans about the latest decisions by the Supreme Court. The question before them was whether sexual preference and gender transition were included as prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of "sex."  Chief Justice Roberts and newly appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch voted to say yes.

Gorsuch was the justice filling the position Democrats consider "stolen" because Republicans refused to allow Obama to fill the vacant position. He was expected to be a vote assuring reliably Republican-favored results. Instead, Gorsuch applied his policy of looking to the text in plain English as it is understood now, without attempt to intuit the intent that may have underlay the creation of those words. The net result was a 6-3 decision, with Gorsuch being joined by Roberts. The LGBTQ community was pleased. Conservatives were not.

Then the DACA decision. Justice Roberts joined a majority on the Court to say that the Trump administration failed to use legal procedures for changing rules to deport undocumented people brought here as children.

Trump tweeted:

     "The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court. If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and. . . Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE."

The reality is that John Roberts is saving Trump's presidency. He is stopping Trump and Republicans from doing unpopular things. Moreover, they keep issues alive for Republicans so that the GOP can remain in its perfect political sweet spot: complaining about what they cannot accomplish.

John Roberts was the deciding vote that kept the Affordable Care Act from being deemed unconstitutional. It is an article of faith among Republicans that the ACA--Obamacare--should be repealed. In fact, the law solves problems appreciated by Republican officeholders and voters. It protects people with pre-existing conditions; it provides affordable health insurance to the working poor; it is a financial lifeline to rural hospitals that would otherwise bleed money from uncollectible services rendered. Republicans have no replacement program in mind, but they have a constituency that had been trained to hate Obamacare.

The political solution: try but fail to repeal the ACA. That way you get the issue, but not the chaos. John Roberts made it happen.

The Supreme Court disappointed Trump on DACA this week. In fact most Americans have little appetite for deporting people brought here to America as young children. They are students, young adults, productive people with a better track record for lawfulness than native born Americans. Yet it is an article of faith for GOP officeholders and voters that "illegal means illegal" and they don't belong here. Actual deportations of millions of children would be a practical near-impossibility. 

Victory is just out of reach

John Roberts to the rescue, by stopping Trump from doing what he wants to do. So, again, the issue stays alive, but without the disruption that would come from implementation. Sweet.

The Court stops Trump. Trump complains. This is win-win. A conservative court stays out of reach, so keep electing Republicans. Judge appointments has been been one area of consensus about Trump's effectiveness. Between his nominees and Mitch McConnell's majority in the Senate, Trump has gotten it done.

It is a simple, understandable reason for Republicans to stick with Trump and the GOP, whatever their other reservations.  The work isn't finished.