Originally written July 10, 2018
With Monday night’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was finally able to insert a name into the statement he prepared when Justice Kennedy announced his retirement. Like all great statements from Democrats, it is filled with so many misdirects it would make David Copperfield blush. Let’s break it down. (Schumer’s statement is in bold)
“In selecting Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, President Trump has put reproductive rights and freedoms and health care protections for millions of Americans on the judicial chopping block.
Schumer hits the ground running. Terms like “reproductive rights and freedoms” and “health care protections” are designed to be vague, so they sound scary. What “reproductive rights and freedoms” is Schumer talking about? Abortions, of course. The Democrats have pushed all their chips in on abortions, which they think are a winning hand. Contraception, abstinence, waiting until you can afford to have children, and adoption are not legitimate options in the Democratic Party. In conservative-speak, it’s called taking personal responsibility for your life. For leftists, this is putting “reproductive rights and freedoms…on the judicial chopping block”.
When Schumer uses a phrase like “health care protections”, he is trying to conjure up an image of a scary straight white male who will beat you with a gavel if you try to get your kid some cold medicine. A phrase that ambiguous can only be meant as a fear tactic.
His own writings make clear that he would rule against reproductive rights and freedoms, and that he would welcome challenges to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
This is just a lie. The biggest criticism from the conservatives about Kavanaugh is that he was the first judge to classify Obamacare as a tax, not a fine. In a case called Seven Sky, he created the legal reasoning that Justice Roberts eventually used to keep the Obamacare mandate.
“President Trump repeatedly promised to nominate justices to the bench who are hostile to Roe v. Wade, and who will undermine our health care laws.
So here is the crux of the argument; Roe v. Wade, leftists white knight and conservatives white whale. Let’s assume the worst leftist nightmare is true, and Roe is overturned. Well, the issue would get kicked down to the states, and most states would probably have a vote to determine if abortion should be legal in their state; like a (gasp) democracy. So either the Democratic Party doesn’t care about democracy, or they don’t think the majority of people agree with them and they want to rule by judicial fiat. Either way, the only thing that should matter is if Roe is a good legal decision. Clearly it isn’t, and that’s why they are afraid.
He has picked Judge Kavanaugh from a list of 25 people who were vetted and approved by the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation – special interest groups devoted to overturning Roeand striking down the Affordable Care Act.
This misdirect is truly remarkable. “Special interest groups” are a catch-all for any group that you don’t like. They don’t have “your interests” in mind, rather, “special interests”. The Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation are not “devoted” to anything other than upholding the Constitution of the United States (something that Schumer forgets he took an oath to uphold as well). Roe is not in the Constitution, no matter how hard leftists look. The Affordable Care Act was also unconstitutional until the Supreme Court changed the law.
Additionally, the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society are representative of the ideology of millions of Americans who voted to put Trump in office. So, President Trump choosing from a list of judges compiled by groups that are devoted to upholding the Constitution of the United States is a bad thing? I’m not sure Schumer was paying attention when he took his oath of office.
With this pick, the president is making good on his pledge to ‘punish’ women for their choices. Judge Kavanaugh got the nomination because he passed this litmus test, not because he’ll be an impartial judge on behalf of all Americans.
The litmus test being, will you uphold the law, not redefine the law. Democrat litmus tests are the opposite. For Democrats, it’s all about how a judge defines law, not upholds the law. It takes a lot of nerve to say that upholding the law as written is not being “impartial”.
If he were to be confirmed, women’s reproductive rights would be in the hands of five men on the Supreme Court.
Reminder to Chuck Schumer, Roe was decided by seven men. Also, if genitalia were indicative of how you would vote on an issue, what would happen if he were to vote on abortion rights? Would he pull the lever for abortions, look down, remember that he’s a man, and vote against? Or does he have a set of principles that are separated from his genitalia?
“The Senate has come together on a bipartisan basis to protect women’s reproductive rights and to protect health care for millions of Americans before – including those with pre-existing conditions.
Here Schumer is actually taking credit for Mitch McConnell’s inability to get the votes on making abortions illegal after 20 weeks and to repeal Obamacare. This was not Democrat or bi-partisan victory. This was Republican failure.
We need to do it again. I will oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have, and I hope a bipartisan majority will do the same. The stakes are simply too high for anything less.
This sentence is just funny. Since Harry Reid torpedoed the filibuster in 2013, Schumer’s “everything” are literally empty statements like this one. He has no power in this. He only has fear mongering and hateful rhetoric, which he will leverage during the entirety of the confirmation process.
“If Americans believe in a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices, and that health insurance companies shouldn’t be able to charge people more based on pre-existing conditions, now is the time to fight. I’m calling on Americans from all walks of life to make their voices heard from now until the end of this battle.
If American’s believe in a woman’s right to have an abortion, and that health insurance companies should be cudgeled under a barrage of government regulation, now is the time to vote. Don’t give the Supreme Court the power to make laws. If Chuck Schumer thinks this a winning issue, he should campaign on this issue. He should attempt to legislate this. He should stop abdicating his responsibility to unelected Justices. Schumer knows this is a losing issue, so he prefers a judicial autocracy.
“This nomination could alter the balance of the court in favor of powerful special interests and against working families for a generation, and would take away labor, civil, and human rights from millions of Americans. We cannot let that happen.
For the closer, Schumer assumes that the Right uses activist judges the same way the Left does, to legislate. This is the entire fear-mongering and delusional argument in a nutshell. The court, you see, is a delicate thing, and should not be swayed by special interests. So when Gorsuch, Thomas, or Kavanaugh say that something is unconstitutional, they don’t mean that. What they are really doing is bowing to their special interest overlords and beating the working families with a stick. But when Kagan, Ginsburg or Kennedy say that the Constitution has a “Right to Dignity”, well that’s just good legal sense, and they are not bowing to the pressure of the left at all.
