Readers are likely aware that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died this weekend. RGB, as she is colloquially referred to has been a factor for the upcoming November elections. However, on her passing, RBG will likely play a larger role in the election. Political pundits and legal scholars are discussing the how and the what of a Donald Trump nomination before the election.
Whether Trump makes a nomination and whether it gets approved by the Senate will not negate one aspect of the RBG passing – the potential to mobilize voters.
The November 2020 elections are unlike past elections in that the country is severely divided over its leadership and is facing the unprecedented economic and life disruptions brought on by the global pandemic. Everything about the election is in flux, from who and why voters will cast votes to how the ballots will be cast.
There is also no question that voting will be a referendum on the political disruption caused by Donald Trump.
Both parties are working overtime trying to mobilize their voters.
The RBG death will likely become the voter mobilizing factor in the 2020 elections.
One on hand, the Republicans will use the replacement of RBG as both proof that they were right to support Donald Trump, notwithstanding his various flaws, if for nothing else the changing face of American jurisprudence.
No matter where one stands on the various issues, the makeup of the Supreme Court has already changed under Donald Trump. It is about to be fundamentally changed with a new Supreme Court appointment.
For the Republicans that is a fundamental win in the ideology of party politics.
Whether an RBG replacement is named remains immaterial for the November election as the Republicans will rally around the idea that they now control the conservative voice of the country through the court system.
For the Democrats, on the other hand, the death of RBG is the end of the progressive agenda via the court system.
This simple fact, regardless of the nomination, will mobilize Democrats and progressive voters. Their only option is Joe Biden and control of both houses of Congress.
The Democrats have a simple solution to the replacement of RBG – control of the presidency and of the Congress.
Only then will the progressive agenda have any chance of moving forward in the future.
