Death of a Justice - And The Nation?

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, revered and reviled as the staunchest of constitutional conservatives to sit on the high bench for many decades, has died at 79.

Without wanting to be disrespectful or macabre, it's easy to imagine Justice Scalia having a good chuckle upstairs at the expense of our politicians.  Never one to shy away from the dramatic gesture or pointed remark, he could have hardly found a more earthshaking moment to shuffle off this mortal coil.

For with his departure, the delicate balance of the Court that has prevailed for lo these many decades is fundamentally shattered.  For a generation, there have been nine on the Supreme Court: four liberals who'd vote for anything liberal short of Karl Marx himself, four conservatives who stay just this side of David Duke, and one, Anthony Kennedy, who can't make up his mind.  Whenever a truly contentious issue makes its way before the Supremes, the result is nearly always a 5-4 decision: four from one or the other of the two opposing poles, plus Justice Kennedy.

In the absence of Scalia, the left now has a commanding position: The best the conservatives can accomplish, if they persuade Justice Kennedy to side with them, is a tie. They can't actually win anything at all.

A tie is a win for the left more often than not, because it means that the lower court ruling which was appealed to the Supreme Court is allowed to stand, however wrong it might be.

So, the far left has been gifted with a golden opportunity not seen since the 1930s when President Roosevelt threatened to "pack" the Court by increasing the size of the bench to fit his own picks - whereupon, in "the switch in time that saved nine," the sitting Justices abruptly started voting his way.  America has not been the same since.

Eighty years on, how far left can our country's legal structure be pushed in a Court term or two of unchallenged liberal hegemony?  The infamous "frog in hot water" theory will be put to the ultimate test.

A House of Cards

This would most likely have happened sooner or later regardless; nobody is immortal, not even Supreme Court justices, but the timing is impeccable.

Had his demise occurred shortly before the election, it would have been just another issue to consider at the polls - a big issue, to be sure, but this election is so full of major concerns that one more wouldn't make much difference.  Then the new president would use his nice fresh mandate to push through his pick.

Had it happened a few years ago, the ending would be predictable and unstoppable: President Obama would appoint a series of far-lefties until the Republican Senate got sick of the press excoriating their "unreasonable obstructionism" and let one be confirmed.  This is what has happened the last few decades: a President who faces a Senate of the opposite party may have to abandon a few appointees along the way, but he'll get one through eventually.

But now, smack in the middle of the lamest of lame-duck presidencies?  We have nearly a whole year to go before a new president arrives on the scene, yet the consequences of an Obama replacement for Scalia are so dire that it must be prevented at any cost, since, technically the Senate could stall an appointment for a year.  It's happened before.

Stand and Fight?  Or Sit and Spin?

That is, of course, always assuming that our feckless and irresponsible congressional Republicans actually want to prevent a Supreme Court which will gleefully torpedo every single conservative law and policy for decades yet to come.

Have our Republican leaders been willing to fight the mass importation of socialist foreigners who overwhelmingly vote for Democrats?  No.  In fact, nearly all of them are as much in favor of open borders as the left, though even a child should be able to understand that it means the doom of Republican power.

Have they managed, at least, to refrain from spending your tax dollars on paying for abortionists, as the Republican Party platform has sworn to do for years?  Nope: just the other month, our Republican Congress once again used your money for something which most Republican voters see as a moral abomination.

So what makes us think that the Stupid Party will be any more bold or effective than they ever are?  Well, to be perfectly frank, not much.

Which is why we'll try to stiffen their spines just a bit, by making a prophecy and a promise:

If the Senate confirms an Obama appointee to the Supreme Court - any appointee, no matter who it might be, the Republican Party is finished.  Done.  Over.  Dead, once and for all.

There are two reasons for this.  The obvious one is - with a commanding leftist majority, every leftist policy will be sustained and ever conservative one struck down, thus ending any possibility of stopping illegal immigration and our demographic conversion into the third-world socialist country of our elite's wildest fever dreams.

Before this happens, though, the Republican base will abandon the party for good.  We are already in the midst of a "pre-revolutionary" election with more widespread voter fury, fear, and aggressive contempt than has occurred in living memory.  If the solid mass of stalwart Republicans is so blatantly betrayed, in such a permanent and consequential way, then why on earth should anyone ever bother to vote for a Republican ever again, much less to stump, promote, or donate to them?

For sure, we won't.  Most of us would prefer even a Bloomberg-based 3rd party to that.

And maybe, just maybe, Justice Scalia would crack a smile at this result: as Reagan's greatest and longest-lasting appointment, what could be more appropriate than to force a monumental decision for the ages of "No pale pastels, but bold colors"?