Kavanaugh's confirmation gives the GOP its most power since the Great Depression

[DonViejo]

By Aaron Blake
October 7 at 7:00 AM

Republicans face a difficult 2018 midterm election in about one month’s time. But on its eve, the GOP just secured its greatest amount of political power and leverage since at least the Great Depression.

The new, clear-cut 5-4 conservative majority on the Supreme Court replaces a more nominal 5-4 court, in which Republican appointee Anthony M. Kennedy served as a swing vote and sometimes sided with the court’s more liberal justices. Things can always change, but Kavanaugh is expected to be a much more reliable vote for conservative issues.

Assuming the court is more tilted toward the GOP going forward, that delivers the GOP the last vestige of power in Washington that had thus far eluded it. While justices are technically nonpartisan, experts say this is shaping up to be the first reliably conservative Supreme Court since at least the New Deal era more than 75 years ago. By some measures, the court was already more conservative than it was then — at least before high-profile decisions legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide and upholding Obamacare — and it’s likely to be even more so now.

In a lot of ways, though, the Supreme Court is just catching up to the legislative and executive branches, both in Washington and at the state level.

Republicans currently control 33 out of 50 governor’s seats, which is just one shy of the record set briefly last year. That happened after West Virginia’s Jim Justice switched to the GOP but before Republicans lost in neighboring Virginia. Before the last few years, the GOP had never held more than 32 seats.

The GOP also holds complete control of the governor’s seat and the state legislature in 25 states (compared to eight for Democrats). That’s also just one off the record, set briefly last year for the same reasons as above. Before this decade, the GOP had never held more than two dozen.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/07/kavanaughs-confirmation-gives-gop-its-most-power-since-great-depression/?utm_term=.a476890ace5e

[Iliyah]

1. Please note . . .

The Great Depression.

[Jersey Devil]

2. Control of SCOTUS is sometimes deceptive despite life terms

Sometimes justices change over time and surprise everyone. Earl Warren was appointed by Eisenhower. Souter was appointed by Bush 41. They also could suddenly die just like anyone else and even the youngest among them can hardly be called spring chickens. Yes, the conservative majority could last a generation or longer. But the luck of the draw could change all of that in nothing flat, so I try to be optimistic about it. If we have a Democratic President and there is one Republican vacancy, then, BOOM, it's a Democratic court.

[LBM20]

3. Too many Dems and Progressive Indies FAILED TO VOTE IN 2014/2016. PERIOD!! So fix it! VOTE!!!!!

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Pain Is A Great Teacher. The Great Depression Was A Painful Time

I believe that the Republican reign will only last until a serious recession, something that Thump and his kleptocratic cronies are unknowingly setting up right now. Should the economy tank, the jobless rate zoom up, and the clueless Trumpkins find themselves hurting as much as at least some of their forebears did when the stock market crashed on Herbert Hoover's watch, THEN Republican misrule will end.

One of the things I remember when I started posting on-line back in my AOL days, there were still some Great Depression survivors. Unlike the cossetted, cant-spouting, clueless "Silent Generation" and Baby Boomers, they had a pretty good idea what life was like without the welfare state. That's why so many of them were enthusiastically Democratic.


Paul Ryan already signaled what the Republicans would do in a recession: should the economy tank, they'll gut food stamps and other programs. People will not only suffer, I don't doubt that many will become homeless, others will starve, more will sicken, and many will die. It's a remedy for "conservatism" I hoped this country would avoid, but watching their loved ones suffer will wise up more dittoheads and Trumpies than our lofty ideals and high-minded rhetoric can.

In the meantime the Repiggies will party like it's 1789.