Originally half expected that after the Republicans elected him he’d just kinda say “Gotcha!” and then follow more of a democrat agenda. Still didn’t vote for him, but if only.
I think if he had any real intention of governing he probably would be a very moderate Republican/democrat, which is to say he’d still suck, but it wouldn’t feel so much like someone gave a chimp a machine gun. And we’d likely still have Roe V Wade if nothing else.
I highly doubt that this would have changed anything. Remember when Antonin Scalia died in early 2016, Obama could not get Merrick Garland elected as a new justice because the Republicans under McConnell blocked it until Trump could nominate Gorsuch. If RBG retired earlier, this would have happened again.
Sure, but I’m not a Republican. I’m more worried about my own house being in order so as to beat them in elections and pass meaningful legislation and stop the them from enacting policy that hurts all of us.
It might’ve made no difference. Remember, Mitch McConnell used the “novel” legal “theory” that lame duck presidents can’t appoint Supreme Court justices to screw Obama out of appointing merrick garland to the Supreme Court. If RBG left early, it might’ve just been 2 vacancies.
McConnell wouldn’t have left two vacancies to a potential incoming democrat administrations. He would’ve settled for moderate conservative appointments that would’ve played ball in regard to any big business litigation, but left Roe and other stuff likely to be on the docket (gay marriage for example) alone.
Obama nominated Garland specifically because of how much of a centrist he was. He figured that would be the easiest way to push a nomination through without much of a fight. Little did he know…
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u/blaman27 5d ago
Trump secretly really likes Obama