In order to to create "the most liberal Supreme Court in 50 years," Senate Democrats went from championing the "pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is under way, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over," to manufacturing a disingenuous three-word hashtag campaign.
The problem for Democrats as they seek to deprive the American people of our voice: the amount of words in their "do your job" hashtag (three) exceeds the amount of people who showed up to an advertised "do your job" protest (two).
The coalition pushing the #DoYourJob message over the Senate’s two-week recess put out an advisory for a protest to take place last night outside a conservative confab that Johnson spoke at (two hours after the Chamber event). It was cold and rainy, but just two guys showed up.
In a telling contrast, the protested event inside was "packed" with hundreds of activists who were "abuzz about the high court."
As it turns out, the Democrats’ "mindless mantra," as coined by Senator Orrin Hatch, is a poor substitute for the will of the American people.
In case you missed it, read more about "Why the campaign to pressure Republicans to confirm Merrick Garland is failing":
The Daily 202: Why the campaign to pressure Republicans to confirm Merrick Garland is failing
The Washington Post
By James Hohmann
March 24, 2016
THE BIG IDEA:
Good morning from Waukesha, Wisconsin. The fight over whether Merrick Garland should be confirmed to the Supreme Court is not playing out in the Senate Judiciary Committee but in suburbs like this one.
Following around Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson yesterday, a Republican battling to get reelected in a tough year for his party, underscored why so few have defected from the GOP leadership’s refusal to even grant a hearing for President Barack Obama’s pick to replace Antonin Scalia.
Despite Democratic organizing efforts, right-leaning activists care more about the Supreme Court vacancy right now than liberals do. In the current climate, most conservatives – even in blue states – have no appetite for compromise.
Richard Diercksmeier, a retired electrical engineer who lives in the vote-rich Milwaukee suburbs, said he heard a news report that Johnson “might be taking a moderate position or a flexible position” on confirming Garland. So he drove to a manufacturing facility here, where the senator was accepting the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to ask him for clarification.
Johnson was adamant: he will not vote for Garland—saying that elevating the judge would threaten “your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” “the right to free speech” and “freedom of religion.”
“We’ll withhold our consent,” the first-term senator said. “A lot of people say, ‘Do your job.’ You know what? I’m doing my job! … We need somebody that can replace Scalia… We do not want it to flip from a 5-4 conservative majority to a 5-4 super-legislator, activist judge majority. That would be very bad for America, very bad for our freedoms.”
Diercksmeier, 73, described himself as very pleased by Johnson’s answer. “Supreme Court appointees are almost more important than the presidency because they last so much longer,” he said after the event. “I didn’t realize until this election cycle how important it is to get that right.”
I asked the senator during an interview whether he thinks conservatives are more amped up about the SCOTUS fight than liberals. “Yes, sure, yes,” he replied. “The people I’m talking to say, ‘You’re going to hold tight, aren’t you? You’re going to hold firm? You’re not going to squish out on this one?’
“No, don’t worry about it,” the senator says he tells them.
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To be sure, every poll shows that majorities of Wisconsinites and Americans want Garland to get a hearing and an up-or-down vote. But these don’t capture the intensity gap that’s apparent on the ground. A Marquette University law school poll conducted last month, before Obama named Garland, found that 51 percent of Wisconsin voters thought the Senate should hold hearings and vote, while 40 percent say Congress should hold off until 2017. But two-thirds of Johnson’s supporters supported inaction, while 28 percent said there should be hearings and a vote.
— Even before Scalia’s unexpected death, the National Rifle Association planned to make Supreme Court nominations a central focus of its 2016 messaging. The vacancy will feature prominently in paid media this fall, but for now the group has been sending action alerts to its members urging them to call Johnson’s office and attend his town halls.
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The NRA’s Chris Cox argues that “the future of gun ownership hangs in the balance”: “From upholding a federal registry of law-abiding gun owners derived from the instant-background-check system created by the Brady Bill to siding with the District government by voting for a do-over in a decision that invalidated the D.C. handgun ban — exactly what the Supreme Court rightfully struck down in Heller — Garland has proved, the NRA believes, he does not support the Second Amendment,” Cox wrote in an op-ed for The Post.
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— The coalition pushing the #DoYourJob message over the Senate’s two-week recess put out an advisory for a protest to take place last night outside a conservative confab that Johnson spoke at (two hours after the Chamber event). It was cold and rainy, but just two guys showed up.
…
— Inside the packed (and toasty) ballroom, hundreds of right-wing activists were abuzz about the high court. Johnson offered a personal “guarantee” that he’ll only vote to confirm a strict constructionist drew probably the biggest cheers during his half-hour on stage. “We absolutely will not allow the Supreme Court to flip,” he told the audience, which included many state legislators. (He referred to Garland as “Judge Merrick.”) Well, he was asked by Milwaukee radio host Charlie Sykes, what about a moderate judge? “There’s no such thing,” Johnson replied. “This is black and white.”
Asked about the fall election, without prompting, Kathy Kiernan – the chair of the GOP in this congressional district – began talking about her opposition to Garland. “The Supreme Court is really important to me. Really, really, really important,” she said. “That’s in the back of everyone’s mind.”
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Her friend Jennie Frederick, who like Kiernan retired from AT&T after working there for decades, was adamant that Democrats would do the exact same thing if they were in this position. “Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer blocked judges when George W. Bush was president,” she said. “So stop saying it’s unprecedented!”