1st July 2018, 4:51 PM
What, actually try to get liberal policies enacted? But that might alienate the Republicans, we can't do that!
On the Supreme Court note, I'm seeing two trains of thought about Anthony Kennedy -- something along the lines of what I said above, that he never really was moderate and apart from a few issues this probably will not change much about the Supreme Court's rulings, or emphasis on how important the few issues he did rule with the liberals are.
Daily Kos, in this article, listed some reasons on that latter point, why missing Kennedy will be awful: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/...-democracy They have five issues of note, beyond the obvious ones of abortion and perhaps also gay rights: voting rights, two points on gerrymandering, ballot initiatives, and campaign finance. And there are some good points in the article; Kennedy was very bad on all five of these issues, but a Trump appointee is likely to be even more radical on all of them and that could be very bad. The potential for overturning Roe v. Wade is also a major issue.
However, while those things matter a lot, for the most part Kennedy was very conservative. Apart from social issues he was no moderate, and that someone as far right as he is is the "moderate" on this court shows just how extreme this court is. And on that point, see this article: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018...l_dt_tw_ru This short article considers why Kennedy went right this term and decided to gift Trump with his court seat. The question of why someone who claimed to care about civility in politics would decide to support Trump is a good one, but he has. Some of the reason is surely that Trump is a Republican and Kennedy is over 80 years old now and wanted to retire and be replaced with another conservative.
But is that it? And on THAT note... well, for a year now there have been stories about Trump's efforts to befriend Kennedy and convince him to retire. Now, though, that story is a lot worse, as it came out that Kennedy's son Justin is a banker with Deutsche Bank who helped Trump get a billion dollars in loans when he was nearly bankrupt, saving his business: https://www.salon.com/2018/06/29/did-ant...1-billion/ It sounds like Justin Kennedy was far from the only one at Deutsche Bank involved in the loan, but still, Trump mentioning it is open and clear corruption I think.
On the Supreme Court note, I'm seeing two trains of thought about Anthony Kennedy -- something along the lines of what I said above, that he never really was moderate and apart from a few issues this probably will not change much about the Supreme Court's rulings, or emphasis on how important the few issues he did rule with the liberals are.
Daily Kos, in this article, listed some reasons on that latter point, why missing Kennedy will be awful: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/...-democracy They have five issues of note, beyond the obvious ones of abortion and perhaps also gay rights: voting rights, two points on gerrymandering, ballot initiatives, and campaign finance. And there are some good points in the article; Kennedy was very bad on all five of these issues, but a Trump appointee is likely to be even more radical on all of them and that could be very bad. The potential for overturning Roe v. Wade is also a major issue.
However, while those things matter a lot, for the most part Kennedy was very conservative. Apart from social issues he was no moderate, and that someone as far right as he is is the "moderate" on this court shows just how extreme this court is. And on that point, see this article: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018...l_dt_tw_ru This short article considers why Kennedy went right this term and decided to gift Trump with his court seat. The question of why someone who claimed to care about civility in politics would decide to support Trump is a good one, but he has. Some of the reason is surely that Trump is a Republican and Kennedy is over 80 years old now and wanted to retire and be replaced with another conservative.
But is that it? And on THAT note... well, for a year now there have been stories about Trump's efforts to befriend Kennedy and convince him to retire. Now, though, that story is a lot worse, as it came out that Kennedy's son Justin is a banker with Deutsche Bank who helped Trump get a billion dollars in loans when he was nearly bankrupt, saving his business: https://www.salon.com/2018/06/29/did-ant...1-billion/ It sounds like Justin Kennedy was far from the only one at Deutsche Bank involved in the loan, but still, Trump mentioning it is open and clear corruption I think.
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