Welcome to the first day of July, and I’m already reaching into my first unpopular opinion of the month grab bag. I know this might not be surprising to some of you but I feel it’s important that it be pointed out and actually expanded upon from an earlier article here at RedState.
This has to do with some interesting subjects that have been in the news lately, namely the recent Supreme Court of the United States decisions, Donald Trump, and the ghost of Roe v. Wade, plus Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Earlier on Saturday, colleague Mike Miller wrote right here Megyn Kelly Calls SCOTUS Finale ‘Spectacular Day for Donald Trump’–which I highly suggest you check out, right after reading this post. Here is a brief excerpt.
So, here’s the rest of the story.
Trump deserves credit for deferring to the conservative Federalist Society for a list of potential nominees.
In addition, love him or hate him, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also deserves credit, for standing steadfast in 2016 against then-President Barack Obama’s lame-duck SCOTUS nomination of the disgraceful Merrick Garland, and in November 2020, quickly pushing Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett through the confirmation process.
My point: Yes, Trump deserves the majority of the credit, but without wisely listening to the Federalist Society and McConnell doing his thing — twice — the high court’s makeup would likely be far different.
Mike correctly points out that Donald Trump deserves heaps of credit for keeping to one of his 2016 campaign promises and using a list of judicial nominees compiled by an organization that favors judges actually reading the Constitution and understanding it. Trump stuck by his guns on this and accomplished the rare feat of getting three Supreme Court judges through during his first four years.
Now, just as a side note: when Trump promised this in 2016, I personally didn’t think he would go through with it. I figured that he was a typical New York Republican who would hedge his bets on abortion and be a bit too squirmish to actually nominate and push through judges that would correctly scratch their heads at the Roe v. Wade decision.
Thankfully, I was 100 percent wrong about Trump and his dedication to that cause.
While Mike touched on McConnell’s role, that reminded me of another article I read last year after SCOTUS bagged Roe by another colleague of mine. Last year, Streiffwrote this after Roe v. Wade bit the dust.
Friday, the US Supreme Court helped right a 50-year wrong by declaring the horrible, paganistic travesties of the Roe and Casey decisions null and void. Nearly a million American babies have been slaughtered annually for almost a half-century. There is no way of calculating the evil done by abortion through lost lives, ruined lives, and a general destruction of respect for life and motherhood in our culture.
While much focus today is on the reactions to that decision, I think it is only fitting to pause for a second to give credit to the man who made this possible: Mitch McConnell.
Mitch McConnell is the guy who stood like Horatius at the bridge and kept a hyper-partisan Merrick Garland from getting a participation trophy in the fading days of the Obama-Biden administration. And by “fading,” I mean the last ten months.
In all fairness to myself, I had to google “Horatius at the Bridge” to fully appreciate what Steiff was saying here. But of course, he was spot on.
Mitch McConnell is solely responsible for Merrick Garland not being on the Supreme Court today and with Garland’s actions as Attorney General, that is something that we should thank the Lord for each and every day. Just think: instead of Garland being the AG for 4 years, he could have been on the high court for 20 to 30.
Thanks, Mitch.
McConnell also never wavered when nominee Brett Kavanaugh was savaged over false rape accusations; he held the course in the United States Senate while he was the Senate Majority Leader. Mitch could have told the White House that it was time to abandon the nominee, but he never did.
Once again, thanks, Mitch.
Also, when Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg exited this world in September 2020–with just over a month-and-a-half to go before the November election–Mitch McConnell stood firm and ramrodded Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the high court. The only reason that was made possible was that Ginsburg obviously overstayed her time, and the political animal that McConnell is took advantage of this. He managed to do what few Senate majority leaders have been able to do in history: alter the court in a relatively short amount of time.
I know about all the acrimony that Donald Trump has for Mitch McConnell now, and the biggest Trump supporters will echo those talking points in hatred.
I don’t care about any of that.
Donald Trump proved me wrong in 2016 and ended up being arguably one of the biggest pro-life presidents we have ever had in this country.
Bigger than Reagan.
Bigger than Bush 41.
Bigger than Bush 43.
Those of us here at Red State are all in agreement that we are pro-life and proud to be. Abortion is one of the more confusing acts that the human race has ever perpetuated on itself. This act will be a stain on this nation’s soul until the end of time and, I’m hoping, will gradually end altogether.
I know that Republicans probably did suffer at the ballot box in 2022 because of the timing of the Court’s decision on Roe vs. Wade. However, for this nation to once again live up to its promise that all people are created equal–even those future people who are in the womb–that decision had to happen in 2022.
President Donald Trump deserves heaps of credit for staying the course and nominating those whou nderstood the founders never envisioned a made-up right to end a pregnancy.
Mitch McConnell, during those four years, was his wingman and set the table for Trump to do something truly historic.
And I’m happy to take a moment to recognize his efforts to help President Trump change this nation on the level of the Highest Court of the Land.
So, hate me if you want, but I’m raising a glass of Kentucky bourbon to Mitch McConnell tonight.
Thanks again, Mitch.