Saturday, September 26, 2020

Democratic Trap. Don't do another "Kavanaugh."


Judge Amy Coney Barrett has the look Trump wanted. She is the archetypal "suburban housewife" and "soccer mom."


Now Trump needs Democrats to assault her, insult her, and turn her into a victim.


Hint to Democrats. Be careful out there. A confirmation fight could go very wrong.

Let's start by observing the obvious. Amy Coney Barrett has a certain look. Blue eyes, light skin and hair, regular features. This blog has received harsh criticism in the past from female Democratic readers for using the word "attractive" to describe a person with conventional American notions of physical beauty. To observe and publicly acknowledge it is, apparently, misogynistic, sexist, predatory, classist, xenophobic, demeaning, and deeply insulting. I am a very bad person.

OK. So I will tiptoe and describe Barrett this way: She has an appearance familiar to viewers of television commercials for happy users of household products, homeowner's insurance, SUVs, patio decking, fitness and beauty products. She could be cast as the female half of a happy couple in a remake of The Brady Bunch, or Modern Family.

We have seen and heard Trump's inner and outer voice well enough to know his thinking, that she looks really great for 48. He would grab her, no question, if there weren't Secret Service people around him all the time. He understands that Barrett looks a part. She is the White woman in potential peril from MS-13, from caravans from Central America, from people from shit hole countries, from Muslims, from BLM, from Antifa, from secular religion-haters, and from Democrats who defend that coalition of threats. He is hoping Democrats beat her up.

Amy Coney Barrett is no Brett Kavanaugh. The Kavanaugh hearing revealed him to be a pugnacious partisan, which was reason enough to assure his elevation to the court. It also revealed him to have been a privileged lout, a drinker, a grown-up frat-boy, whose connections let him glide upward on life's escalator. The attack on Kavanaugh was a mixed political bag for Democrats. Democrats looked overeager, too quick to accuse and jump to a conclusion, which hurt them. There was the saving grace that they were punching up at self-satisfied privilege, nobody's hero.

Attacks on Amy Coney Barrett would have the opposite feel. She would look like a victim, the nice person attacked by vicious Democrats. It would be another iteration of the frightened St. Louis White couple waving guns at protesting Blacks and Democrats, only this time the victim is more appealing. She seems so nice in a White, suburban way.

Democratic senators may be savvy enough to try to avoid attacks that look personal, but it will be difficult. The issue of Roe is unavoidable. If Lindsay Graham pounds the table and says this is an attack on good honest Christians, and that he "won't stand by quietly while Democrats gut punch Jesus Christ,"  then regardless of what Democrats do, that meme will circulate, at least in conservative media.

Comedian Bill Mahar has already given Republicans something to work with. He called her "a fucking nut" last night. Fox News pounced on it.

This blog again gets criticism, mostly from Democrats, for observing that most voters--especially those lightly engaged people on the margin--do not analyze policy carefully. What? Don't voters have a checklist of policies that they use to evaluate candidates? No, they don't.

Voters get impressions of people based on a few cues, and from that they make gut decisions. Trump picked the person who looked the part he needed. At first and second glance Amy Coney Barrett comes across as a nice person, an attractive working woman and wife. In the battle of good-guys and bad-guys, she is the good-guy.

In the Democratic frame, Mitch McConnell and Trump need to be the bad guys. They are guilty of rank hypocrisy regarding Supreme Court appointments. They said one thing about Merrick Garland and reversed themselves shamelessly with this appointment. Voters don't like high handed hypocrisy, from whatever party. They think it is typical ugly politics. Republicans may accept it as hardball politics, and a victory, stolen maybe, but a victory nevertheless, but no one thinks McConnell is motivated by principle. 

Democrats are going to lose. Republicans have the votes, simple as that. The only thing Democrats can control is what this battle is about. If Democrats attack her, it will be an attack on their own tribe, the educated woman.

But if they attack McConnell for his flagrant hypocrisy, will be an attack on out of control partisanship in the era of Trump--exactly the Biden message.

McConnell is the bad guy here.











7 comments:

John Flenniken said...

The real question is Barrett’s independence to judge. Whether she would recuse herself if a question over the votes favoring Trump or Biden or the coming battle over the ACA. There are real constitutional questions they can explore. It may be boring too. All the better if Democratic committee questions are of a judicial nature. It may also be a tripwire for Kamala Harris if she is seen attacking a sitting federal Appellate Judge. There is more risk then reward. There is the narrative circulating that the Republicans are lying hypocrites and the process for Presidential nominees is Party-based. Get it on the record but don’t keep beating the same drum as it has nothing to do with the nominee. As, I commented recently, this is the last promise by Trump fulfilling a promises to the Evangelical church. The court is now packed with “their” preferred judicial temperament, so Why re-elect Trump? What do you do with a useful idiot when his usefulness evaporates? November Third will tell. Remember to Vote everyone.

Jeanne Chouard said...

Democratic Senators need to make ALL their questions about tRump, but frame them legally. For example, “President Trump was recorded as saying, “When your famous, they let you do whatever you want . . . Grab ‘em by the pussy.” Legally, would you define a person grabbing another person’s penis or vagina, without consent, as Mr. Trump described has been his repeated behavior, as sexual assault from a legal standpoint. Please answer “yes” or “no.” In other words, use the hearings to attack tRump’s records and quote him as often as possible and just make her sit and listen and then answer “Yes” or “No.”. Let her get uncomfortable talking about specifics of sexual assault. Democrats don’t have the votes to stop
the nomination, but they can use it to showcase tRump’s hypocrisy.

Dave Sage said...

I agree John. Give Trump this vote. One less reason to re-elect him. Ask if she believes that judge’s should be nonpartisan, if she believes in honoring elections, if gerrymandering is constitutional. She will be a Supreme Court justice, so accept the reality. Sometimes it’s best to accept the reality rather than tilt against windmills.

Ely Schless said...

Yep, she's as good as in. My hope,like John F says, is that in their haste to get a conservative justice seated prior to the election,it will backfire and a sizeable chunk of R's that never liked Trump because he's such an obvious a-hole, will vote for the decent candidate, having done their godly duty while holding their noses.

I'm more optimistic than many. I actually trust the SC to make the right calls based on the nuances of cases that reach them. The whole diatribe about whether a justice is a lib or a con is just media hype, clickbait and identity posturing. It totally denigrates the agency of the SC. And we are in a time of fractured trust already thanks to our great divider in chief. I say zip it. And vote D.

Andy Seles said...

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Andy Seles

McGirk said...

It would be best to ignore this latest distraction and when Biden is elected to stack the court.
Vote blue.

Ralph Bowman said...

SHE SPEAKS IN TONGUES

Amy is charismatic Catholic...she speaks in tongues, has been filled with the Holy Ghost and has a direct line to Jesus. As long as she doesn’t get a direct message about a court ruling, we will be ok. A little rolling on the ground, some dancing in the spirit, and a few “cama, da, Jalapa da ding dong” and we will be happy.
I was taught to speak in tongues when I was about 12...an all day session, lying on my back with my arms raised saying Jesus,Jesus,Jesus until I started jabbering and crying in the spirit....along with other kids my age. The Largest Pentecostal Assembly Of God Church in Los Angeles. Praise, Jesus! Her blue eyes speak to me !