Dishonest, absolutely. But in a certain sense what they’re doing is more true to their values. They believe they are in a war over the future course of their nation. They’re not interested in being nice, and they’re not willing to sacrifice the things they care about for some pretence of honesty and decency.
There’s a consistency to their ideals there that liberals often lack. McConnell blocked Obama’s supreme court picks because he could, and because it would help advance his agenda. Obama meanwhile had many options for simply steamrollering over the senate, but refused to explore any of them because it was more important to respect the process than it was to achieve results. Biden got huge swathes of his agenda blocked by Trump’s supreme court picks, but never contemplated packing the court to solve this problem, because it was more important to respect the process. You can argue that they were protecting these institutions, but when the institutions have already been so utterly perverted what value is there in protecting them? The senate and the supreme court are now less trusted than ever, all thanks to Obama and Biden “protecting” them while Republicans corrupted them.
This is devious, underhanded, scummy, and selfish. But it’s true to their ideals. They believe in the world they want, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it. The left could learn from that.
Never forget that McConnell told the Democrats that if they broke tradition and blocked Bork’s nomination, it would set a dangerous precedent. And then he cheerfully did it to Merrick Garland years later.
Is it hypocritical though?
Dishonest, absolutely. But in a certain sense what they’re doing is more true to their values. They believe they are in a war over the future course of their nation. They’re not interested in being nice, and they’re not willing to sacrifice the things they care about for some pretence of honesty and decency.
There’s a consistency to their ideals there that liberals often lack. McConnell blocked Obama’s supreme court picks because he could, and because it would help advance his agenda. Obama meanwhile had many options for simply steamrollering over the senate, but refused to explore any of them because it was more important to respect the process than it was to achieve results. Biden got huge swathes of his agenda blocked by Trump’s supreme court picks, but never contemplated packing the court to solve this problem, because it was more important to respect the process. You can argue that they were protecting these institutions, but when the institutions have already been so utterly perverted what value is there in protecting them? The senate and the supreme court are now less trusted than ever, all thanks to Obama and Biden “protecting” them while Republicans corrupted them.
This is devious, underhanded, scummy, and selfish. But it’s true to their ideals. They believe in the world they want, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it. The left could learn from that.
Never forget that McConnell told the Democrats that if they broke tradition and blocked Bork’s nomination, it would set a dangerous precedent. And then he cheerfully did it to Merrick Garland years later.