Trump and McConnell are speeding the GOP to permanent minority status

[Zorro]

Opinion by Joe Scarborough

The Republican Party is sealing its fate.

While President Trump refuses to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power, his vassals in the Senate are moving quickly to guarantee that Trump’s latest Supreme Court justice will be on the court in time to swing the results of any election challenge. GOP leaders, of course, have the constitutional right to jam through a vote, but any victory they secure in the coming confirmation fight will be Pyrrhic.

Washington insiders have long considered Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to be a shameless and cynical operator. But the Kentucky Republican’s actions over the past four years have so radicalized the Supreme Court selection process that Democrats will surely respond to McConnell’s extreme partisanship once back in power. During Trump’s presidency, “the world’s greatest deliberative body” has been reduced to a crude vote-counting chamber; this new legislative reality means Democrats would need only 50 senators and one president to pack the Supreme Court in 2021. Expect that to happen, since McConnell’s callous response to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death will speed the GOP toward a permanent minority status.

To be fair, the Republican Party’s future was already grim; White resentment doesn’t mix well with revolutionary demographic change. And the appointment of yet another Trump justice before the election will only further alienate Republicans from women, suburban voters and independents.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-and-mcconnell-are-speeding-the-gop-to-permanent-minority-status/2020/09/24/6d63dd30-fe95-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html

[BlueTsunami2018]

1. We keep hearing this but it never happens.

Nixon was supposed to be the end of them. Carter gets four years and Reagan and then Bush won in giant landslides. Clinton wins and fixes their mistakes but it just wasn’t enough to put Gore over the finish line and W steals the election. He goes on to devastate the economy and put us in horrific wars of choice. We win big in 2008, grabbing majorities in both houses. Two years later we’re absolutely destroyed in the midterms because Legitimate President Obama didn’t fix the disaster fast enough. We win the big one in 2012 but they still hold Congress. 2014 they still hold. 2016 they “win” all three. 2018 we win the House but can’t win the senate. Which leads us to today and the very real possibly that they steal it again or worse, people vote for this, and the country as we knew it, ends.

They’re a zombie party. They’re never dying, they’re never going away.

[WinstonSmith4740]

10. Zombies. Perfect description.

I remember Rachel right after the 2008 election telling us not to underestimate what the Republicans were capable of, and willing to do. She said they were like cornered animals, and cornered animals always dangerous. She pretty much predicted the whole Tea Party bullshit. If the Democrats had stood up then, we wouldn't be going through this now.

[Walleye]

2. I think they prefer being in the minority. They'd rather whine and complain than actually govern.

They said it many times they hate government

[walkingman]

3. Never underestimate nasty Anglo people.

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. Oh, the curse of hubris...

Remember that "Permanent Republican Majority"? Remember Tom DeLay? Newt Gingrich? They were gerrymandering and pressuring the media into establishing that majority. They were full of themselves. They thought that they had it all under control.

Democrats need to proceed with plenty of solid backing from their own groundswell, and to always be looking over their shoulders at the next wave of fascism, but only after this current wave is flattened. Because it will come. Fascism is relentless.

[dalton99a]

5. Minority status with permanent veto power over Democrats

Kill the filibuster and expand the court.

[BadgerMom]

11. And add DC and Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands as states.

I am sick of racist Republicans.

[Lucky Luciano]

12. Virgin Islands will be tough to make a state - only 100k people.

...but, two additional states like those should help with the republican bias in the senate.

[BadgerMom]

13. I agree. They're too small.

That’s why I said with Puerto Rico. They’re so close that if they were included as a part of a Puerto Rican state, they could benefit. They have different histories, but their proximity might make it work.

[Lucky Luciano]

14. Oh joined with PR - not sure about the dynamic of combining them, but

...if they’re both ok with it, then why not.

[colsohlibgal]

6. Please Make This So

Make them the 21st Century Whigs......they really have devolved into a hate filled cult.

[BlueWavePsych]

7. Looking forward to this!

[maxsolomon]

8. Trump & McConnell speeding permanent GOP control of SCOTUS.

White people will always backlash if they're asked to embrace difficult truths.

[BlueMTexpat]

9. Let us sincerely hope

so!

But if it happens, Dems MUST play hardball. Today's GOP is literally insane.

[Jspur]

15. They will always be around but

I would like to see the Dems go on a 20-30 run like they did with FDR-Truman followed by JFK-Johnson where they have control over government. I keep feeling we are due for that type of run. Republicans have dominated the presidency and the government since ‘68. That’s a 52 year run of dominance.

[cstanleytech]

16. They want majority control of SCOTUS at any cost as they see the long term gains worth it which is

why they should be denied it by increasing the court to 13 as soon as Biden is sworn in.