Justice Amy Coney Barrett

It happened, and the Democrats were powerless to stop it.

The minority party has used its minority Senate majority, to allow its minority President to confirm another Justice with minority views to the Supreme Court to legislate over the majority; cementing a 6–3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court for a generation.

The Democrats did nothing but complain a bit. No playing loose and fast with the rules or procedural delays, they let the Republicans walk over them as usual. Believe me, if it was the other way I’m certain the Republicans would have pulled out far more dirty tricks. What’s the use of playing by the rules if the other side isn’t signed onto them?

We now have to accept with over 60 million people already having cast their votes, and Barack Obama’s pick not even getting a hearing way back when: over a year prior to the 2016 election, this profoundly antidemocratic measure has been taken, Amy Coney Barrett is now an Associate Justice to the Supreme Court, she’s called the results of Roe V Wade “barbaric” and written against the Affordable Care Act. Republicans are doing a victory lap, and basic rights are at risk of being rolled back, with a regressive court ruling over a country with increasingly liberal social attitudes among a larger minority than the other side/or indeed a majority.

What now? Democrats have to pack the court. Sod the norms, the norms aren’t being followed; play dirty. If the blue party gets hold of all three branches of representative government, they need to use those two years rapidly, steamroller through more Supreme Court nominees, then keep a hold of the White House to stop Republicans doing the same. This is a thing they can realistically do if the political will is there. Now’s the time to see if they are willing to fight for the progressive values they profess to hold.