The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court: what a victory! This win for the Republican majority, for President Trump, and for the nation as a whole should inspire conservatives going into Election 2018. However, the criminal antics leading up to his success should encourage steps to prevent such an outrageous circus from happening again.

President Trump’s leadership inspired courage and conservatism among a Republican U.S. Senate caucus which had routinely acquiesced to the other side many times rather than fight back. When Republicans fight, they win. They should consider doing more of it. During the 2010 Tea Party wave, a number of Republican incumbents lost their seats in primaries (and Murkowski almost lost hers) because they did not fight for conservative values and fight back against the Democratic Party.

Eight years later, with Trump at the helm, Republican U.S. Senators are flexing their muscle. Perhaps McCain’s passing has cemented the resolve of the Republican conference, too. Never would have I expected Lindsey Graham to put aside bipartisan comity as effectively and severely as he did when defending Judge Kavanaugh during the Judiciary Committee hearings. Senators Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley also demonstrated a more solid edge against the loud, obnoxious Democratic minority on their committee. They rebuffed protesters for their ramped-up savage attacks

Even flakey U.S. Senator Jeff Flake stood up for the team in his final year in the Upper Chamber.

Initially, his request for one more FBI investigation seemed like craven, Never-Trump cowering—anything to screw over the President who had shamed him for his liberal views on borders and national economic interests. Looking back on the 50-48 confirmation victory, Flake’s qualifying motion makes sense. The seventh investigation fully exonerated Kavanaugh beyond reproach, and it offered President Trump the opportunity to prove his commitment to a transparent process. Finally, the investigation provided necessary ballast for U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Joe Manchin to vote for confirmation.

And then there’s Collins. Never have I been so proud of a GOP moderate. Collins has been a 50-50 member of the upper chamber for the last two decades. She voted against Obamacare, but she still voted for Planned Parenthood. This time, she took the bold step of believing Kavanaugh because the accusers and their spurious evidence failed to convince her to withhold her vote. She confirmed not just Kavanaugh, but everything that makes our judicial system great: presumption of innocence, thorough investigations; a commitment to believing the facts, not one’s feelings; and finding the truth rather than promoting a political outcome.

On a larger note, the Alinsky-Obama-Clinton machine of mob-ocracy and muggery failed big time. Before becoming President, Barack Obama’s only real job had entailed community organization and academia (if one can really call those efforts “work”). He intended to remake the United States into a socialist endgame first through his executive actions, and then with an expanded network of social justice warrior activist groups. Organizing for Action is still active, and big money from left-wing donors like Tom Steyer, George Soros, and Michael Bloomberg is pouring into national and statewide efforts. But they hit a big wall of conservative resolve. The stakes were too high for Republicans to let this confirmation slip away.

This victory is a big win for Kavanaugh the man, not just the justice. What incredible fortitude we saw in this jurist. His selection is a big victory for Trump’s political instincts, too. He chose a candidate with a long judicial record. Trump likely foresaw the worst political machinations from the Democrats, and Kavanaugh stood up to them, shaming the disgraceful antics of the Democratic Party, who callously fundraised of this debilitating conflict to shore up election prospects in 2018 and 2020. Democrats don’t understand that conservatives not only understand the corrupt games that liberals play, but now they know how to fight back and win.

There are causes for concern going forward, and those issues were laid out early in this confirmation process. In his opening statements at the Judiciary Committee hearings, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse announced the causes behind the SCOTUS Circus which erupted at the Kavanaugh hearings. Congress is not doing its job to pass meaningful legislation, but is turfing its authority to fourth branch bureaucracies or leaving considerable policy outcomes to the United States Supreme Court.

The court of last resort has become too powerful, taking on a super-legislative role in our republican form of government. Their role in federal and even state politics needs to be scaled back. It’s time to review judicial review, rethink Marbury v. Madison. Should the Supreme Court have the final say on whether legislation withstands constitutional scrutiny? Congress has the power to limit the size and scope of the judiciary’s power. Doing so would decrease the increasingly partisan wrangling which has strangled the nomination/confirmation process.

Last of all, yes indeed the U.S. Senators stood up to the mob of abusive left-wing agitators. Yet if the United States Constitution is to serve as the final guide for our legislature, we must remember the Framers’ original vision for the United States Senate. The upper chamber was never supposed to be a popular chamber, i.e. elected by the people of the several states, but rather selected by the legislatures. Fake news and progressive propaganda induced the passage of the 17^th Amendment, which created the direct election of Senators.

The argument for repeal of the 17^th Amendment may be difficult to make. However, as the country becomes more conservative, concerned about federal overreach at the expense of individual liberty and state sovereignty, a “Repeal the 17^th Movement” can take shape. Once enacted, the U.S. Senate can be restored as a deliberative body immune to mob rule and ensure a respectable process for confirming Supreme Court justices and other executive officials.

For now, the country (and conservatives in particular) can bask in this incredible legal, moral, and political victory. Let’s hope that our leaders learn from this process and take steps to reform it in the near future.

Uncategorized

Brett Kavanaugh Confirmed and Sworn In! (Photos)

October 11, 2018October 11, 2018 Arthur Schaper

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MassResistance: Kavanaugh Circus vs. Kagan’s Kid-Glove Treatment in 2010

October 10, 2018 Arthur Schaper

The Brett Kavanaugh circus vs. Elena Kagan’s kid-glove treatment in 2010

Republicans refused to fight when a true radical was elevated to the Supreme Court

October 9, 2018

Lunatic rent-a-mob shows up outside Sen. Jeff Flake’s Senate offices spewing invective and hate over the Kavanaugh nomination. [Photo: New York Daily News].

In the Senate proceedings on US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, many Americans watched the most gruesome political circus of their lifetimes. The Democrat Senators were irrational in their vicious attacks on him. The piercing screams and bizarre, hysterical behavior of their radical allies who swarmed the Senate chambers, adjacent areas, and outside Senators’ homes was far beyond even the legendary Bork spectacle.

Inside the Senate chambers, hysterical Democrat protesters screamed during the proceedings.

But Kavanaugh’s actual views on issues are middle-of-the-road and even slightly liberal (e.g., that Roe v Wade is “settled law”) [LINK]. There has been concern over his links to the “deep state” and the Vince Foster cover-up during the Clinton years, but for whatever reasons that doesn’t seem to trouble most Republicans.

The GOP pulled up their boots and held off the attacks on Kavanaugh (and the rule of law). While this was courageous and “principled,” we’re not expecting anything stouthearted when the next contest arises.

Compare the Republican stand for Kavanaugh to what happened in 2010. That was the year Barack Obama nominated Elena Kagan, then Solicitor General and formerly Harvard Law School Dean, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kagan was a true leftist radical. She had a well-known history of pro-LGBT radicalism while Dean of Harvard Law School. While in the Clinton administration, she encouraged the President to support late-term abortions. She had no experience to recommend her to such a high position in the courts. However, she would be sure to push for “LGBT rights.” But the Republicans put up no discernable fight.

When the time came, the Republicans didn’t have the nerve (or the interest) in seriously rocking the boat, and they barely mentioned any of this.

On May 10, 2010, Obama announced the Kagan nomination to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. On June 28, a team led by MassResistance researcher Amy Contrada published a report documenting Kagan’s extensive LGBT activism, titled: How Elena Kagan helped “queer” Harvard Law School. Will she now help “queer” the US Supreme Court’s decisions? The answer, as we’ve seen since, is “yes.” We (and others) sent copies to every Senator, and as many members of their staffs, etc., as we could. People also telephoned to follow up.

Among the facts in the MassResistance report:

Kagan accelerated and legitimized the GLBT “rights” concept and law studies at Harvard Law School and in the larger community.
Kagan recruited former ACLU lawyer (and former ACT-UP activist) William Rubenstein, an expert on “queer” legal issues to teach at Harvard Law School. His topics have included “polygamy, S&M, the sexuality of minors.”
Kagan promoted and facilitated the “transgender” legal agenda during her tenure at Harvard. In 2007, HLS offered a Transgender Law course by “out lesbian” Professor Janet Halley and Dean Spade, a transsexual activist attorney.
Kagan encouraged Harvard students to get involved in homosexual activist legal work in the guise of “public interest law.” To get “clinical” legal experience, the Harvard Law School established the LGBT Law Clinic.
Kagan engaged in ongoing radical advocacy opposing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and demanding an end to the ban on homosexuals serving in the military.
Even after Kagan and Harvard lost their legal campaign to ban military recruiters and Harvard Law School was forced to let them back on campus, she encouraged ongoing student protests against them — deputizing the radical Lambda (LGBT) group to come up with ideas of how to harass the recruiters legally.
Kagan attended functions of radical LGBT groups at Harvard University, absorbing and apparently agreeing with their goals. Within a month of meeting with a Harvard Law School LGBT student group, she was agreeing with their demand to ban military recruiters on campus. She moderated a panel on GLBT law at the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2008.
Thanks in part to engagement by Kagan (and other administrators), Harvard became so committed to radical transsexual activism that by 2010 its health insurance policy partially covered “sex-change” breast “treatments” for transsexuals (either men taking hormones to develop breasts, or women having their healthy breasts removed to become the “men” they believe they are).
Elena Kagan was an active member of the Diversity Task Force of the ultra-leftist Boston Bar Association during the time of its activism in support of “gay marriage” and advocacy for “transgender rights.”

This history should have been a big red flag for GOP Senators who cared about how the US Supreme Court would re-define American law and culture. All of it had “activist judge” warnings written all over it.

But besides a few comments here and there, Republicans (and the mainstream pro-family movement in Washington, DC) refused to make an issue over her past activism and clear bias.

The Kagan “vetting” was very peaceful and orderly. Although at that time the filibuster was allowed for Supreme Court nominations, GOP minority whip Jon Kyl said, “The filibuster should be relegated to extreme circumstances, and I don’t think Elena Kagan represents that.” Yeah, right.

The Senate vote on August 5 was 63-37. Five Republicans — Richard Lugar (R-IN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Judd Gregg (R-NH), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — voted to approve Kagan. One Democrat (Ben Nelson, D-NE) voted “No.”

Our warnings have proven correct. Kagan has been an activist, ultra-leftist Supreme Court Justice. In 2013, she joined the leftists on the Court in several pro-“gay marriage” rulings. Then, after personally officiating at a “gay” wedding, she refused to recuse herself from the Obergefell case and joined the chorus to rule that “gay marriage” is enshrined in the US Constitution.

Our far-left activist Supreme Court Justices: Elena Kagan (left), Sonia Sotomayor (center), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg at one of Nancy Pelosi’s “progressive” political events in 2015.

And now, Justice Kagan is pontificating — that with Kavanaugh joining the Court, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court will be at risk! That horse left the barn a long time ago.