Confirmation Hearings for Christian Fascist Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett
Democrats Concede Defeat Before the Fight Starts,
Then Praise Republi-fascists for Letting Them Voice Their Concerns

October 19, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Republicans hold a small majority in the Senate and on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But there was—and still very much IS—a basis to prevent Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, by going hard after her Christian fascist orientation, her complete lack of principle in pursuing this orientation and disregard for the law and actual legal precedent, and by calling out as intolerable the whole confirmation process—which is being jammed through in the weeks before the election, for the openly stated purpose of stacking the Supreme Court so that it will rule in Trump’s favor in election disputes.

Democrats could have called people into the streets in large numbers around this; they could have made Barrett so toxic that some Republican senators would back away from her; they could have boycotted and even disrupted the proceedings commensurate with the stakes of what is being deliberated, i.e. a Christian fascist future.

But that’s not what happened—it’s the opposite of what happened. But the fight is far from over, the outcome far from determined! The role of the masses and masses of people who hate what she stands for and the fascist Trump/Pence regime is decisive in this struggle to STOP her nomination—as part of preventing the stealing of the election, and with the goal of driving out this fascist regime.

Before the Judiciary Committee hearings even began, Democrats said that Barrett’s “personal religious views” were off the table. People are entitled to their religious beliefs. But imposing these beliefs—that abortion and many forms of birth control, gay intimacy and gay marriage are an offense against “God,”—on the rest of society, in violation of existing law, and therefore criminalizing these things, is a whole other thing. The latter should automatically disqualify consideration for the Supreme Court.

The Democrats did not touch Barrett’s decades-long membership in People of Praise, a cult-like Christian fascist group which has profoundly influenced her since childhood. More relevant, they did not press her on why she concealed this relationship—first in 2017 and again in the current hearings—by not mentioning People of Praise at all, even in response to questionnaires that instructed her to name all groups or organizations she had belonged to since law school.

Democratic senators did ask some good questions, and got shocking responses... but then they just let Barrett’s answers slide! With a few exceptions, there was hardly any “prosecutorial zeal” from the Democrats, or any sticking to the line of questioning that would have exposed Barrett and further shredded any legitimacy of her being nominated, far less confirmed to the Supreme Court. There was no fight to render this thoroughly illegitimate, either in the content of what Amy Coney Barrett stands for, or in the process of rushing her confirmation through to ensure a fascist majority on the Supreme Court, going into the election and adjudicating on any major elections-related cases.

Barrett said she couldn’t say whether intimidating voters was illegal; whether the president was obligated to peacefully transfer power if he lost the election; whether Trump had the legal power to postpone the election; whether birth control or abortion should remain legal. These were all WTF? moments. Democrats needed to make a big scene about these positions being anathema to democracy and to the rights of women, and that they disqualified her from sitting on the Court.

Then to cap it off, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein, ended the hearings by thanking Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, who had presided over this whole travesty like a courtly southern gentleman overseeing a slave auction—smiling, joking, maintaining all the “courtesies,” as people’s lives were shattered. Feinstein said “This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in... Thank you for your leadership.” Then she hugged the mask-less Graham. This was literally nauseating to millions who watched it.

According to the New York Times, referring specifically to constraints on Senator Kamala Harris, the vice-presidential nominee, but applicable more broadly, the Democrats conducted the hearings with the outlook that this was “a fight they will lose in service of one they might win”—conceding in advance that they couldn’t stop Barrett, but hoping that by keeping a low profile they could score a few points and avoid offending anyone. They wanted to avoid any “explosive moments” that might upset so-called “swing voters,” because this might hurt them in the presidential and senate elections. As the Times put it, the “consolation prize for losing the court for a generation... could be winning control of the Senate—and the White House.”

The problem with this strategy—besides the fact that it is probably wrong on its own narrow electoral terms,¹ and besides the utter cynicism of viewing basic human rights “for a generation” as “negotiable”—is that the price for losing the Court could well be losing the White House and Senate as well, because a 6-3 fascist majority Supreme Court may end up ruling on who actually holds onto power, irrespective of who actually wins the election.

For more on WHY the Democrats can’t fight Trump the way he needs to be fought, go here to the article by Bob Avakian, “Voting Will Not Be Enough—We Need to Take to the Streets, And Stay in the Streets Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now! Part 1: The Democrats Can’t Fight the Way Trump Needs to Be Fought.”

This is why what IS needed is the masses of people out in the streets, taking up the call of Refuse Fascism to oust this regime from power, to defiantly oppose—and prevent—her confirmation as part of that, as part of defeating Trump’s moves to steal the election in a rolling coup, as part of preventing a Christian fascist majority on the Supreme Court being locked in for the next few decades and imposing their vision on all of society. This—hundreds, possibly thousands in defiant protest, changing the terms and influencing millions—potentially can change the political equation and dynamics wherein the Democrat Senators—and possibly more than a couple of Republicans in the Senate—are compelled to act differently, wherein the powers that be see their overall legitimacy threatened by these moves, and wherein things shake out differently. And we emerge with a vastly different future than the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the continued rule of the fascist Trump/Pence regime, and its nightmare for humanity! Given the millions who hate and dread this nightmare scenario, it IS possible, the future is unwritten!

 

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1. See “The Democrats Can’t Fight Trump The Way He Needs To Be Fought,” by Bob Avakian, for more on this. [back]

People protest at the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings, October 15. (Photo:@KristinMinkDC)