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Dems need to cancel Trump's cheesy SCOTUS reality show

Trump's embarrassing reality-show extravaganza of a Supreme Court pick made further mockery of American democracy. It's imperative that Democrats do what they can to prevent Neil Gorsuch from becoming a Supreme.

    by Will Bunch | Columnist
    Published 

You know the old saying that when you're a carpenter, every problem looks like a nail. But when you're a failed-casino-magnate-turned-TV-reality-show-star-turned-inexplicably-president-of-the-United-States, every problem looks like next week's episode of "The Celebrity Apprentice."

Take picking a new Supreme Court justice, for example. Introducing your nominee at a dignified Rose Garden announcement is maybe something that worked for those 44 boring dudes in the "old America." In Trump's America, we wait for the February rating "sweeps" to begin and take this thing prime-time, 8:02 p.m., baby -- and that's just the beginning.

Why not take two respected jurists from the U.S. Court of Appeals and make them both travel to Washington, to heighten the suspense? You know, kind of a "Bachelorette" thing. Honestly, it wouldn't have surprised me to tune in tonight and learn the actual pick was coming at 8:57, after clips of Trump going out on "dates" with potential High Court picks, asking their thoughts about Griswold v. Connecticut or campus speech codes while soaking in a hot tub or on a moonlight Potomac cruise. I thought maybe there'd be highlight reels of the judges, like the Heisman Award show. Or that it would be like LeBron's "The Decision"? -- "Judge Hardiman is taking his talents inside the Beltway."

Anyway, like Season 8 of "Big Brother," the whole thing was kind of an anti-climax, which probably dragged down the ratings. The president's nominee -- Judge Neil M. Gorsuch from the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver -- is who you thought he was. A heaping slice of white, male, conservative bread from the president who just picked the most male, whitest cabinet since the 1980s. A decent, ethical man with conservative views on hot-button issues like "religious liberty" (which too often is code for sanctioning discrimination), who would likely uphold the court's current bias toward "corporations as people" and away from actual people. But for those who don't share his rightward-tilting philosophy, Gorsuch is probably about as a good a man as one could hope for out of the Bannon-Trump administration.

And yet Senate Democrats must do everything in their power to make sure Gorsuch never sings one note with the Supremes.

That problem is that this has been one process that you can't trust. And when I criticize the process, I'm not referring to Trump's co-opting of tawdry reality-show production values to disrobe the nation's highest court of its dignity, as he attempted tonight, nor the fact that the president's prime-time Judgapalooza clearly aimed to divert attention away from the disastrous roll-out of a Muslim ban cloaked as "immigration policy." Even though both of those things are real and problematic.

But the two bigger issues are these:

First. it's time for the Democratic Party to grow a spine and join the war that Republicans started last spring -- their assault on American democratic (with a small "d") norms. This runs deeper than Donald Trump. When then-President Obama nominated Merrick Garland last year to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, it was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP minions who tossed more than two centuries of tradition and American-Exceptionalism-style good government out the window -- denying Obama's legitimacy to make that appointment by refusing to even give Garland a hearing.

At the time, I called the GOP maneuvers "a shocking breach of its Constitutional responsibility that raises questions whether, at the ripe young age of 240, America can successfully be governed." And so far, they've completely gotten away with this hijacking. If the Democrats roll over -- their default position, I realize -- and allow a speedy vote to confirm Gorsuch without raising a ruckus, the GOP's crime against democracy will be complete.

And since January 20, a new crisis has emerged that must animate the opposition with even greater ferocity. In the White House, President Trump and his destructive aides and white-supremacy-footsie-players like propaganda minister Bannon and Stephen Miller are moving quickly to consolidate their power in the most authoritarian government this nation has ever seen. It's been just 10 days, but the signs of springtime for Trumpism are everywhere: In the Monday Night Massacre firings, in the secrecy, chaos and inhumanity of the immigration order, in the shocking move to install Bannon as a force in national security, in the constant assaults against a free press, and in the daily executive orders of dubious legality.
In this highly toxic environment, it is the moral duty of Democrats to -- and I'm ironically stealing a quote from William F. Buckley here -- stand athwart history, yelling "Stop!" The unique threat that Donald Trump poses to the American Experiment is Not Normal -- and so neither can be the response. Things need to slow down. The moves by Democrats today to stall some of Trump's Cabinet nominations was a right and proper step in that direction. A filibuster against Gorsuch's selection to the Supreme Court is the next logical and righteous move.
No, I don't know exactly how that would play out. Nobody does. It's surely possible -- and maybe likely -- that McConnell and the GOP would do "the nuclear option" and end the filibuster for Supreme Court picks, further bringing his party's gross hypocrisy into the light of day. But maybe a filibuster would give the Democrats some leverage to prevent other bad things that are matters of life-and-death for millions of Americans. A deal to save Obamacare, for example. And truth be told, the High Court's been doing just fine these last few months without the full contingent of nine justices.
Either way, it's imperative that 48 Senate Democrats cancel Trump's lame SCOTUS reality show. You want to get your inspiration from TV? Then how about..."Eight is Enough"?
    WB
    Will Bunch