Have the Brett Kavanaugh hearings backfired on the left?

[Valrifell]

As long as they don't give women the vote, the Republican party are golden.

Found the time traveller.

[Mystic Warriors]

To be fair I brought it up, but I do find it outstanding that Kavanaugh was a prime driver of the Starr Report, expanding it from Whitewater into the death of Vince Foster into Monica Lewinsky over a multi-year investigation aimed at finding anything to impeach Clinton but for a proper investigation into him..?

No sirree.. any such wish is just the Dems playing politics.

The Democrats are mandated to be Lawful Stupid while the Republicans are allowed to do whatever it takes. Yet everyone threw a fit when Hillary said it's time to stop being civil until the Democrats take back power as a matter of survival.

That's not what she said. She said you cant he civil with a party which wants to destroy you. She is right.


Remember, the Republicans weren't civil under Obama. But they get a pass obviously.

[Shofercia]

As long as they don't give women the vote, the Republican party are golden.

Wyoming, which was the first state to give Women the Right to Vote, is solidly Republican.

[Page]

As long as they don't give women the vote, the Republican party are golden.

Wyoming, which was the first state to give Women the Right to Vote, is solidly Republican.

The political parties of that era do not at all resemble the political parties today. What Democrats and Republicans stood for 100 or more years ago is irrelevant, as much as Republicans love to talk about how they're the party of Lincoln who abolished slavery and Democrats were segregationists, as if that has anything to do with the parties now.

[Telconi]

The Democrats are mandated to be Lawful Stupid while the Republicans are allowed to do whatever it takes. Yet everyone threw a fit when Hillary said it's time to stop being civil until the Democrats take back power as a matter of survival.

That's not what she said. She said you cant he civil with a party which wants to destroy you. She is right.


Remember, the Republicans weren't civil under Obama. But they get a pass obviously.

Good for the gander...

[Infected Mushroom]

He was chosen because he was highly qualified and right leaning. At the time though, he wasn't interested in revenge and had no intention of being controlled by the President. Now however, he's going to repay his allies and punish his foes... because the Democratic Party and the Committees made it Personal.

He was chosen to keep the President out of prison. And there was only one committee.

And he's 100% justified. This is what the American democratic political system does to people. Its not about unity, its not about progress, its not about what's good for the people... its about mudslinging, partisanship, political crucifixions and bureaucratic passive-aggressiveness.

No, you just want America to become a dictatorship so you're blaming everything you don't like on democracy.

I do want America to be a dictatorship, you got that right.

[Northeast American Federation]

The Democrats are mandated to be Lawful Stupid while the Republicans are allowed to do whatever it takes. Yet everyone threw a fit when Hillary said it's time to stop being civil until the Democrats take back power as a matter of survival.

That's not what she said. She said you cant he civil with a party which wants to destroy you. She is right.


Remember, the Republicans weren't civil under Obama. But they get a pass obviously.

And pray tell, if the republicans are driven to destroy the democrats (allegedly), and the democrats are responding by trying to destroy the republicans (as a defensive measure, allegedly), what do you suppose the future of the country might look like?

He was chosen to keep the President out of prison. And there was only one committee.


No, you just want America to become a dictatorship so you're blaming everything you don't like on democracy.

I do want America to be a dictatorship, you got that right.

Such seems to be increasingly the goal from all angles of the political spectrum, unfortunately.

[Myrensis]

538 is currently showing an 80% chance of a House flip, by the by.

What were their odds for Clinton's election again?

Screw 538, I think the House is too close to call.
So go out and vote y'all.

In that case you should be worried, because they're giving Republicans an 80% chance to hold the Senate.

In any case there's no Electoral College for House races bubby, and while Republicans are of course working over time to purge voter rolls and disenfranchise as many undesirable minority voters as they can, they still have to actually get more votes than their Democratic opponent to win.

Wyoming, which was the first state to give Women the Right to Vote, is solidly Republican.

Back in 1869? Maybe the reason Republicans have such problems with women and minorities is that their litany of great civil rights things they did comes to a sudden stop going on 60 years ago now.

"Ask your great great great great great grandmother about that one thing Republicans did when she was 5, then you'll realize you should obviously vote for us today!"

[Northern Davincia]

Wyoming, which was the first state to give Women the Right to Vote, is solidly Republican.

The political parties of that era do not at all resemble the political parties today. What Democrats and Republicans stood for 100 or more years ago is irrelevant, as much as Republicans love to talk about how they're the party of Lincoln who abolished slavery and Democrats were segregationists, as if that has anything to do with the parties now.

The GOP now is actually the closest it's been to the 1920's.

[Shofercia]

What were their odds for Clinton's election again?

Screw 538, I think the House is too close to call.
So go out and vote y'all.

In that case you should be worried, because they're giving Republicans an 80% chance to hold the Senate.

In any case there's no Electoral College for House races bubby, and while Republicans are of course working over time to purge voter rolls and disenfranchise as many undesirable minority voters as they can, they still have to actually get more votes than their Democratic opponent to win.

Wyoming, which was the first state to give Women the Right to Vote, is solidly Republican.

Back in 1869? Maybe the reason Republicans have such problems with women and minorities is that their litany of great civil rights things they did comes to a sudden stop going on 60 years ago now.

"Ask your great great great great great grandmother about that one thing Republicans did when she was 5, then you'll realize you should obviously vote for us today!"

Since I'm neither republican nor democrat, I'm not really worried, or even remotely worried. Also, I called the senate for republicans, and I value that prediction more than 538's. And 538 has a lot of clickers following them, so there's no reason to be worried about them either. And yes, I know that the Presidential Election, the one with the EC is different than the midterm election, the one without EC, but go ahead and give yourself a cookie for pointing that out. My point was that 538 giving out odds is like a gambling site giving out odds, and the person with the best odds doesn't always win. What were Las Vegas' odds of making the Stanley Cup Finals at the beginning of last year's NHL season? Exactly. On the other hand, the Keys to the White House have yet to be wrong.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Wouldn't a Democratic House and Republican Senate effectively result in total political deadlock, though?

[Costa Fierro]

Wouldn't a Democratic House and Republican Senate effectively result in total political deadlock, though?

It would. Same thing happened during Obama's second term.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Wouldn't a Democratic House and Republican Senate effectively result in total political deadlock, though?

It would. Same thing happened during Obama's second term.

With the disgusting polarization currently ongoing, this is going to be a hell of a rollercoaster.

[Costa Fierro]

It would. Same thing happened during Obama's second term.

With the disgusting polarization currently ongoing, this is going to be a hell of a rollercoaster.

Meh, American politics have been heading down this track for decades.

[United Dependencies]

No I think he was originally going to be more fair and balanced; actually being a proper SC judge. But now that he's been pissed off, he's definitely going to be way more vindictive. And as one of the most powerful judges in the nation, there's nothing the Democratic Party can do. Its really ironic.

Maybe that sounds to you like it would make a good plot to a movie, but that doesn't make it true. Kavanaugh was not chosen to be a neutral arbiter of justice. Before he retired, Justice Kennedy negotiated with President Trump to determine his replacement. Suspected key factors in Kavanaugh's nomination was him being a former clerk for Kennedy, and his belief that a sitting president should not be subject to criminal investigations.

Not to mention his history as a known political operative during the Kenneth Starr investigation and his time a a political advisor in the Bush whitehouse.

[Attempted Socialism]

In any case there's no Electoral College for House races bubby, and while Republicans are of course working over time to purge voter rolls and disenfranchise as many undesirable minority voters as they can, they still have to actually get more votes than their Democratic opponent to win.

There's gerrymandering and the inherent anti-democratic mechanics of FPTP instead, though. IIRC Democrats currently need roughly 6 percentagepoints more votes on the national level to get an equal amount of House seats. The Democrats consistently get more voters than the Republicans, just not enough to overcome the tyranny of the minority.

Judging from polling data* the Kavanaugh hearing hasn't definitively backfired electorally in general, though. It's just that some very specific states that the Democrats need to win the Senate are also states where a majority voted for a man bragging about his sexual assaults on tape. It was a gamble that they could win an uphill battle and not have it affect their chances in certain areas. I think we'll have part of the answer in a few weeks (If the Democrats lose their Red State senators it backfired, if they keep most it was neutral, if they gain seats it was beneficial), and the whole picture by 2020 (There may be an effect like the Thomas/Hill hearings).

For Kavanaugh, who is known to be a biased, far-right political hack who worked on the illegal justifications for torture, there's no real doubt that he was put forward because he thinks a sitting president can't be investigated and his other radical, partisan views. I think it lessened the blow of his confirmation that we now know, openly admitted by himself under oath, that he is biased and will use his power to destroy the judicial system and hurt his perceived enemies. To say that exposing his temperament or bias towards any hearing process will backfire is simply unreasonable; akin to saying that it hurts to know that an avalanche is coming your way. It might even be grounds for recusal.
If he lied under oath he could technically be impeached, but the Democrats wouldn't have the Senate votes to convict, so it's a moot point.

*See, e.g. FiveThirtyEights Trump Popularity tracker which has moved back to where it was before the hearings. Most polls I've seen have also had around 40% approval of Kavanaugh.

[Friendly Cannibals]

Fuck Kavanaugh. The fact that he's in reflects badly on the whole human race.

[Pope Joan]

I read that in Texas a surprising number of women who are registered Democrat have said the mistreatment of Kav is leading them to vote GOP this fall, except they still like Beto on immigration, but otherwise they are going GOP

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Kavanaugh should have been disqualified on policy alone, the sexual assault allegations were superfluous icing on an already iced cake. It disturbs me to wonder how many Democratic Senators might have voted to confirm him had these allegations not come out. His record on the bench was more than enough to not want him anywhere near the Supreme Court.

[Liriena]

Rebel Media, known big brains who gave us the "soyboi" bullshit lmao

Also, no. This mess split along partisan lines, and the Democrats are still somehow looking pretty good for next month's elections.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Kavanaugh should have been disqualified on policy alone, the sexual assault allegations were superfluous icing on an already iced cake. It disturbs me to wonder how many Democratic Senators might have voted to confirm him had these allegations not come out. His record on the bench was more than enough to not want him anywhere near the Supreme Court.

Apart from a few things his record is great though.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I read that in Texas a surprising number of women who are registered Democrat have said the mistreatment of Kav is leading them to vote GOP this fall, except they still like Beto on immigration, but otherwise they are going GOP

And did you actually believe it?

[Page]

Kavanaugh should have been disqualified on policy alone, the sexual assault allegations were superfluous icing on an already iced cake. It disturbs me to wonder how many Democratic Senators might have voted to confirm him had these allegations not come out. His record on the bench was more than enough to not want him anywhere near the Supreme Court.

Apart from a few things his record is great though.

Kavanaugh supports mass surveillance and is against net neutrality.

[Vassenor]

Apart from a few things his record is great though.

Kavanaugh supports mass surveillance and is against net neutrality.

But he's pro-gun and anti-abortion so those don't count.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Apart from a few things his record is great though.

Kavanaugh supports mass surveillance and is against net neutrality.

Literally every judge in the country supports mass surveillance lol, the 4A has been bipartisanly gutted.