Mr. Chairman, I will ask no questions because there’s no point in doing so. We all know this is a pro forma charade with the outcome already locked up. I will simply take a few moments to address Judge Barrett directly.
Judge Barrett, I feel genuinely sorry for you. You have strong credentials and merits. However, you are here not because of them. You are here only because you are a token, a pawn.
Throughout the rest of the history of this country, your name will have an asterisk by it, denoting that your place on the Supreme Court is illegitimate, the result of hypocritical, amoral conniving to turn the Court into a far-right political rubber stamp by two-faced mandarins of a Republican Party destined to go down in flames, consumed by its own internal rot and the fire of its own decrepitude.
You will forever be denied the opportunity to compete truly on your own merits. You are in that seat only because, despite all your protests to the contrary, your record has convinced the GOP king-makers that you will be a reliable robot to help them implement their dark, Hobbesian, plutocratic vision for America.
Object and hide behind high-flown jurisprudential rhetoric all you want, but no one will believe you.
Everyone, Democrat and Republican, knows that you are before us only because the history of your teaching, your scholarship, and your public statements has convinced Trump, McConnell, Leonard Leo, the Koch brothers, and all the billionaire backers of the Federalist Society and the right-wing dark money machine that you will be a reliable Handmaid, doing their bidding even if you yourself don't think so or don't realize it.
I feel sorry for you because you will take the seat of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a titan of American jurisprudence, who will go down in history as everything you will not: independent, her own person, dedicated to the marrow of her bones to equal rights for all, and an implacable foe of anyone, no matter how well-funded or how well-cloaked behind anonymous shell corporations, who tried to push any American into second-class status, any woman into less than full equality, any political activity into the shadows, any marginalized minority into permanent subservience, and any religious bigotry into political power.
You represent the opposite of Justice Ginsburg in every imaginable way: the way you got here, the way you will be counted on to rule, and the ways in which your presence on the Court threatens everything Justice Ginsburg stood for.
This is a sad, sad fate for a woman as accomplished as you. I am profoundly sorry for you, and for our country as you take your illegitimate, corrupted, forever asterisked seat on the Supreme Court.
NOTE: According to Snopes.com:
[The above] message was originally penned by a Facebook user named Rob Donaldson, but this person is not a sitting U.S. senator. This message, which was originally shared privately with friends on October 16, is an imaginary speech Donaldson envisioned delivering if he were a senator. When Donaldson’s friends urged him to make it public, this detail was lost, and this post was shared as if it came from an actual speech delivered by a sitting senator.
Related Off-site Links:
Senate Confirms Barrett, Delivering for Trump and Reshaping the Supreme Court – Nicholas Fandos (The New York Times, October 27, 2020).
To Tame a Far-Right Supreme Court, Let’s Revive This Forgotten Proposal From 1922 – Leon Fink (In These Times, October 13, 2020).
The Republican Party’s Supreme Court – The Editorial Board (The New York Times, October 26, 2020).
How to Reverse This Craven GOP Power Grab – Robert Reich (RobertReich.org via Common Dreams, October 27, 2020).
UPDATE: Incensed Over Amy Coney Barrett's Confirmation? Don't Mourn – Organize and Vote – Jules Lobel (Common Dreams, October 28, 2020).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Progressive Perspectives on Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Amy Comey Barrett and the Republican Effort to Cement Minority Rule
• Charlie Stuart: Quote of the Day – September 28, 2020
• Hold Them to Their Word
Image: Illustration by Nicholas Konrad/The New York Times; photograph by Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times.
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