It's interesting that McConnell is betting on a few things that seem contrary to the worst that we believe about where we're headed. #
He thinks there's a good chance Repubs will be out of power in January. Either he'll be out of the majority in the Senate or Trump won't be president. Otherwise why rush to get the next judge approved? #
He thinks the Supreme Court continues to matter after the election. If we're going totally authoritarian, the court doesn't matter, they're puppets. They'll do what they're told to do or off to the concentration camps with them. #
But there's the Occam's view of this that maybe makes more sense. #
McConnell is 78, an old man, and he's got maybe one more term in him, maybe not even that. He's playing a game for the sake of the game, the same way a compulsive crossword puzzler has to finish the Sunday NYT puzzle. #
He set out to do one thing in his life, turn the court Republican. It may not matter at that point, in any real sense, but he wants to win the game, a game that as soon as a few months from now people will have forgotten was ever played. #
PS: As observed yesterday, he's driving turnout, for Democrats. #
Last update: Wednesday September 23, 2020; 10:54 AM EDT.
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)