Torching the republic: McConnell’s gaslighting of America

As previously noted in this blog, Mitch McConnell successfully (and proudly) stole a seat on the United States Supreme Court. Well, apparently he doesn’t want to be remembered for it. In fact, it sounds like Mitch would rather we all pretend that whole Merrick Garland thing ever happened.

You can read Mitch’s remarks directly on his senate.gov page:

It has been 70 days since the president nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court. For more than two months, the Senate has pored over Judge Kavanaugh’s professional record. We’ve reviewed the 300-plus opinions he has authored while serving on the D.C. Circuit. More pages of documents than have ever been produced for a Supreme Court nomination; more than for the past five nominations combined.

The past five nominations combined? Wasn’t Merrick Garland one of the past five nominations? I suppose that technically, zero pages of documents were “produced” for his nomination, since a hearing was never held and documents were never requested by the Senate.

Still, though, isn’t it quite odd for Mitch to whine about Kavanaugh’s confirmation taking “70 days” when Mitch let Merrick Garland’s nomination sit for 293 days until it expired without so much as a hearing?

This is nothing new for Mitch. Just a couple months ago, he was busy on Twitter pretending that whole Merrick Garland thing never happened:

That whole “we should treat this process with the respect and the dignity that it deserves” thing rings pretty hollow, coming from a man whose proudest moment was telling a sitting President to his face that he wouldn’t follow the process.

Lying to the American public is literally Mitch’s only option here. He’s gaslighting because he has no other choice, not if he wants Kavanaugh confirmed. We’re only a couple of months away from an election where Democrats have a non-zero chance of retaking the Senate. It comes down to pure game theory at this point:

• If Mitch can force Kavanaugh through, Republicans retain control of the Supreme Court. (Odds of filling seat by November: 100%)
• If Mitch can’t force Kavanaugh through, that means public pressure can sink nominations, and the next nomination could also be sunk. (Odds of filling seat by November: Less than 100%)

So either Mitch applies all the pressure he can to get Kavanaugh through as quickly as possible before the nomination is derailed… or he might not get anyone confirmed at all. But Mitch can’t complain about the process taking too long when he delayed Garland’s nomination for much longer, and with far less justification.

At least, he can’t do that without pretending the whole Merrick Garland thing never happened. So he’s just going to try to gaslight America about the whole Garland thing. Gaslighting is in the realm of fascist propaganda, particularly when it’s done to maintain and consolidate political power, and personally I have no interest in letting Mitch get away with it.