Is Kavanaugh The Key To Holding Congress? Maybe.

Like many of you, I've spent a good deal of time over the past few months worrying about next year's midterm elections, and the very real prospect of Joe Biden spending the last two years of his term with a Congress effectively run by Donald Trump and his thugocracy.  It's worth worrying about, especially in light of the massive Republican project to take away the right to vote from various Democratic constituencies.  That project may backfire on the Republicans, and I pray that it will, but the reality is that a lot of progressive energy has been spent getting the current political configuration of the federal government, while a lot of retrogressive, insurrectionist energy has gotten fired up.  If the January 6 attack on the Capitol is an indication of anything, it is certainly an indication of that.

I'm hoping that I don't need to say anything at all to get people fired up for the midterms.  The prospect of Trump being effectively in control of the nation again should be enough to get the lion's share of voters to the polls in droves to vote Democratic.  But, I'm not as sure about that as I would like to be.  The catastrophes of the 1994 and 2010 midterms don't offer a lot of reassurance.

But there is something that ought to motivate progressives, even if nothing else does.  Something whose composition isn't as frequently shaped by elections as are Congress and the Presidency, because it is controlled by people who have been given lifetime appointments.

The Supreme Court.

Put simply, the Court in its current state is an absolute disaster.  It is controlled by six ultra-conservative Justices, three of whom were confirmed for their positions under the dodgiest of circumstances.  It believes that corporations are people, that bribery is permissible if it happens before an election, that all voters are equal but some voters are more equal than others, that racism effectively ended with Obama's election, that law enforcement officers are almost always reasonable, that the First Amendment allows the imposition of Christianity on those who don't believe it, that the medical profession has the right to medically rape women to intimidate them from getting an abortion.  Want me to go on?  Okay, just one more thing, since I brought up the subject of abortion.  Currently, the Court is considering a case from Mississippi that has been framed as a direct, explicit challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that held in favor of the constitutionality of abortion rights.

It is the highest court in the land.  Its decisions can be governed by precedent and logic, or by craven political considerations.  Currently, the latter is the case.  And, as a consequence, the highest court in the land is an absolute disaster.  As a court, and with regard to the impact on We, The People.

And, like it or not, this state of affairs is very much on the shoulders of progressives, especially the ones who decided that Hillary Clinton was so much like Donald Trump that they could take a flyer on their responsibilities as citizens and vote for Jill Stein, to say nothing of the ones who did the same thing when it came, earlier, to the choice between Al Gore and Ralph Nader.  Had Gore and Clinton been elected, we would have no reason to worry about the Court's composition.

But we didn't.  So we do.

But that's the past, however much it governs the present.  Progressives have belatedly responded to their electoral negligence by demanding a law expanding the Supreme Court and giving Biden and the current Democratic Senate a chance to pack the court.  Biden has responded by appointing a commission to look into federal court reform.  With all the other political issues on Biden's agenda, court expansion isn't going to happen anytime some.  And, on reflection, we may want to consider that to be a good thing; the tit-for-tat matter in which the Republicans could respond down the road speaks for itself.

However, there is something we can do.  Something very effective.  Something that might have a positive impact on next year's elections, and thus future federal court appointments.

We can, and must, demand that the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate the failure of the FBI to investigate the 4,500 tips it received on a tip line set up during the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, during which time serious allegations of sexual assault were made against Kavanaugh.  Rather than investigating any of the tips, the FBI sent them to the White House, where they died a very political death.

We can also, and must, demand that a full investigation be conducted of the sudden and complete liquidation of Kavanaugh's six-figure indebtedness prior to his confirmation hearings.  Who were the creditors?  How much did Kavanaugh owe?  And, perhaps most crucially, who did the paying, and why?  What did they gain from it?  What subsequent Court decisions were shaped by it?

And, once those investigations are completed, and depending on what they reveal, Kavanaugh must be made to answer for those revelations in Senate hearings.  If that in turn leads to impeachment proceedings against Kavanaugh, so be it.

All of this is well with the current power of the Democratic Senate.  All of this, if done, has the power to stop the relentless march of the Supreme Court toward becoming a vessel of complete corruption.  All of this, certainly, has the power to remind progressives of how much is at stake next year, and let them know that they can count on the current Senate majority to fight on their behalf.

Call your Senator.  Call the White House.  Tell them to get on this.  Right now.  Tell them to light a fire under Kavanaugh--and, in the process, light a fire under the voters they will need next fall.

NOTE:  this might be less of a story if it weren't for the reporting of progressive news outlets like Daily Kos.  Follow them, and support them.  They and other similar sites might be the only real journalism we have left.