The Patriot Post® · McConnell's Strategy: Ensure SCOTUS Protects the Constitution

One of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s greatest triumphs was holding the line against Barack Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland to succeed the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court in 2016. McConnell refused to even hold hearings on Garland’s nomination, arguing that voters should weigh in on whether to utterly change the Court’s make-up when the White House and Senate were held by different parties. It was the same argument Democrats had made in presidential elections past. But now the Democrat-Leftmedia Complex is in hysterics over McConnell’s supposed hypocrisy after he announced Tuesday that he would fill any SCOTUS vacancy in 2020 despite it being an election year because the same party controls the Senate and White House.

It is true that the Republican calculation in 2016 was hardball politics. Almost no one thought Donald Trump would actually defeat Hillary Clinton, but McConnell’s big gamble paid off, big time. Instead of Obama substantively changing the Supreme Court with Garland, or Clinton picking him or someone else, Trump chose Neil Gorsuch, an originalist who would follow in Scalia’s large footsteps and take seriously his oath to “support and defend” the U.S. Constitution.

“What can’t be undone,” McConnell said, “is a lifetime appointment to a young man or woman who believes in the quaint notion that the job of the judge is to follow the law.”

Interestingly enough, that’s the exact phrase NBC News cut from McConnell’s quote. No bias there…

And that’s the whole point here. Ultimately, this isn’t just “political.” It’s the essence of the struggle between Rule of Law and rule of men; of Liberty and tyranny. Democrats want justices who will rule according to a “living” Constitution that just happens to comport with current “progressive” sensibilities. Republicans want justices who will uphold the Constitution as written. McConnell’s move in 2016 and his pledge for 2020 are borne of the same strategy — to ensure constitutionalists join the Supreme Court.

(Updated.)