Democrats Bring Knives to Gunfights

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her office chambers at the Supreme Court in Washington. Sotomayor is the Court's 111th justice, its first Hispanic justice, and its third female justice. (Photo by Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images)

1. But They (Don’t) Fight

In the Hunter Biden Pardon Discourse there is a strain of argument that goes something like this: Democrats must be willing to break norms in order to fight and protect the country from Trump.

I’m open to that general concept.¹ As I wrote on Monday:

• Unless a practice is recognized as normal and essential by the entire political system, it’s merely a stylistic preference.

• If having one side uphold a norm resulted in the restoration of that norm, it would be one thing. But there is no evidence that this is the case.

So let me propose a norm that should absolutely be broken: Sonia Sotomayor should retire today and her replacement should be confirmed by the Senate immediately.

Would that be irregular? Yes. Would it be difficult to execute? Yes. Would it carry a political cost for Democrats? Possibly.

But is such a maneuver permitted by the law? Absolutely. And the fact that Democrats have made no attempt to push Sotomayor out over the last month is an actual, real-life case of bringing a knife to a gun fight.

---

People tend to lapse into abstractions when they discuss how their side needs to “fight harder” against opponents who are supposedly, much tougher. So let’s talk about two specific cases which illustrate the differences in how Republicans and Democrats approach the use of political power.