BY PAUL CARTLEDGE
The Republican do-or-die push to install Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Supreme Court is not being fueled by any deep held right to life convictions on the part of Republicans. Nor is demagogue-in-chief Mitch McConnel swayed by Kavanaugh’s position that a sitting president cannot be investigated.
Kavanaugh is an important key to advancing and locking in the plutocracy. Kavanaugh has a stellar history from the bench of favoring corporate rights over the rights of individuals.
Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch together will form the leadership of a dream team that for decades to come will work to solidify the court ruling in Citizens United. This is a major priority of the Kochs, the Waltons and a host of other billionaires who have invested decades of work and untold millions in their push to ensure that money – their money – controls the government of these United States of America.
The election of President Donald Trump has thrown a vexing wrinkle into the oligarch’s game plan. He has indeed proved to be a useful idiot by touting the virtues of and signing into law their mammoth tax cuts. Trump also readily forwards judicial nominations vetted by the alt-right, Koch-backed, Federalist Society, including Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and a plethora of lower court nominees.
When then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson publicly pronounced his view that President Trump is a “f%#@ing moron,” the intended audience was the billionaire clack. A truly successful plutocracy needs to function under an autocratic government. Tillerson moves among the highest ranks of the corporate elite, so when he says that Trump is a moron, he is saying this is not someone to put in power as an autocrat.
McConnel brashly proclaimed that, sexual misconduct claims not-withstanding, Kavanaugh will be seated on the Supreme Court. Republicans are well aware that their support of Kavanaugh is stirring women to go and vote for Democrats for Congress. Republicans know they are likely to lose control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections. McConnel is aware that Republican handling of the sexual misconduct claims against Kavanaugh could well place the Senate in play for Democratic control.
McConnel must view these temporary setbacks of the push to plutocracy as worth the price of having the Supreme Court on their side.
Democratic control of the House and Senate would ensure deep problems for President Trump. But trouble for Trump could also be a pleasing prospect for the oligarchs. It wouldn’t be all bad to let the Democrats dispose of the moron. Once they have the Supreme Court locked in, the oligarchs will believe the success of their push to a full plutocracy is all but certain.
–Durant resident Paul Cartledge is chair of the Bryan County Democratic Party
