I wonder whether the Kavanaugh debacle has had any impact on the Federalist Society

[diva77]

Who are the Federalist Society? Inside the right-wing group picking Trump’s Supreme Court judges

How a group for libertarian law students founded in 1982 has come to dominate the judicial nomination process.
By
Sophie McBain
Sept. 7, 2018
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2018/09/who-are-federalist-society-inside-right-wing-group-picking-trump-s

SNIP
When Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed as Supreme Court Justice, as he almost certainly will be, it will mean that five of the nine Supreme Court justices are members of the Federalist Society, a network of conservative and libertarian lawyers that has become one of the most powerful groups in America today.

The most enduring legacy of the Trump administration may be its remaking of the courts: in addition to two Supreme Court appointees (Trump’s other pick, the conservative Neil Gorsuch was appointed last January), Trump inherited 107 other judicial vacancies. According to New York Times figures, President Ronald Reagan inherited 35 unfilled judgeships and President Barack Obama had 54.

Trump has effectively outsourced the task of filling these seats to the Federalist Society, and in particular to its executive vice-president, an ultra-conservative, devout Catholic named Leonard Leo, who has helped transform the lawyers network into, as the New Yorker describes it, a “conservative pipeline to the Supreme Court”.

SNIP

“It's important for all Americans to understand that the extreme right wing, the extreme conservatives, are much better organised, much better financed, and have a much better idea of what they're about than the liberals or progressives do. The liberals or progressives need to wake up and take a look at what’s happening at the other end of the ideological spectrum and figure out a way to get their own house in order, because liberals and progressives have been losing ground now for the last almost 40 years, and even to this day they have not come with either an effective set of ideas or an effective organising principle that allows them to make this a fair contest,” Avery tells me.

In the absence of an effective liberal alternative to the Federalist Society, the best hope for liberals is that they will win back control of Congress at the Midterms, he says. “If the left-wing and progressives can't capture the legislative branch and turn the popular will into their way of thinking, we’re in for a rough ride for the next several years if not decades.”

SNIP
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bold type added for emphasis

[TEB]

1. May they choke

The federalist society on their bullshit

[diva77]

2. They definitely need to be shut down.

[idcdu]

3. Shut down, then building set on fire, website 404'ed,

and all Federalists Society members sent to the nearest mental hospital. They don't belong in public society.

[JHB]

4. No, it won't, except to make them more bitter and determined...

...because if Kavanaugh doesn't get on the SC, they'll believe with all their might that they are the ones who were wronged.

[asiliveandbreathe]

5. James Bennit - Exec Editor NYT writes for the Federalist - among other publications..

Then you have to follow up with another article by Charlie....

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22026080/new-york-times-donald-trump-family-values/

Here, Charlie lets Jill Abramson, former Exec. Editor NYT, have some space to air her take on the current Exec Editor NYT - James Bennit - as she says..

it’s past time for someone to wrestle the wheel away from James Bennet for his own good and that of the newspaper. I never will understand how this unexpurgated codswallop ever gets past the laughter -
We have a guy who writes for The Federalist and who is an editor at First Things, the latter a journal of faith that occasionally functions as a Catholic fanzine for Protestant fundamentalism

[CincyDem]

6. That's because it's always easier to create a consensus about where you've been...

...versus where you're going.

The Federalist Society, as with all Republican organizations/think tanks, it about preserving a social and financial structure that preferentially supports one group at the expense of all others. And it's easy for members of that group to look back at what they call "the good old days". So it's easy to create a rally point and a fund raising message.

In contrast, Democrats are working to take us into the future, ideally a better future for all of us. But the issue is that we can't all agree on what that better future looks like. As a result, there's a diffusion in the message and the goals. The organizing principles are different.

IIRC, The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street were born in similar timeframes. Today, there is serious discussion of a Tea Party congressman becoming third in line for the presidency. Personally, I don't think he's got a chance in hell but the fact that it's talked about openly is a commentary on how far the Tea Party has progress as an organized faction of the political landscape.

OWS is...well...still working on it.

This is not at all a commentary on dems but more the nature of organizing around the future vs the past. There's a quote from Machievelli, paraphrased...

There's nothing as dangerous to one's own success as to try and create a new order of things.

That's what you always hear. But it continues...

Because opponents are well entrenched in the status quo while supporters have the natural human fear of an unknown, and unknowable, future.

Dems are about creating that future and it's just hard f'ing work.

[diva77]

7. excellent points.