Graham and the GOP have the power to seat a justice now. That’s reality. Deal with it

In the aftermath of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death a few days ago, there’s been much hand-wringing over:

▪ Whether it’s right for Republican President Donald Trump to quickly nominate someone to fill the seat so close to the November election.

▪ Whether it’s proper for Republican senators — most notably South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee — to work hand-in-hand with Trump to promptly put the president’s nominee on the Supreme Court bench.

▪ Whether it’s unfair and hypocritical for Graham and fellow Republicans to fast-track a Supreme Court nominee mere weeks away from a presidential election when they blocked former President Barack Obama from putting a new justice in place several months before Americans voted for a new president in 2016.

(Actually, on the last point, it’s been more hysteria to the brink of extreme hyperventilation.)

Enough, already

Well, it’s time.

It’s time for those across our state and our country who continue to stamp their feet about the clear intention of Trump, Graham and other Republicans to swiftly nominate and confirm Ginsburg’s replacement to take one piece of advice — and to also come to grips with one reality.

Here’s the advice:

Stop it.

Just stop.

Enough, already.

And here’s the reality:

Trump, Graham and their fellow Republicans have the power to proceed as they wish in filling the Supreme Court vacancy — and they have every right to use every bit of that power to seat the president’s nominee as rapidly as possible.

Is it fair?

Is it right?

Is it unseemly?

Is it disingenuous?

Is it hypocritical?

Hey, we can all feel free to have our own answers to those questions.

But here’s what is absolutely beyond question:

What the Republicans are doing at this moment is totally in step with what politics is about in our country at this moment — which is taking the power you’ve legally earned in previous elections and employing it to the maximum degree to shape the current and future America to reflect your political ideology and principles.

That’s it.

That’s all.

Stop whining

So let’s lay it out for those who continue to cry and, yes, whine, that Graham and other Republicans are being cynical, hypocritical and just plain mean by forging ahead with plans to put Trump’s eventual nominee on the bench in brisk fashion.

Stop with the over-the-top pleas for Graham and his GOP colleagues to suddenly bend to your will and change course on seating a new justice.

They won’t.

Stop with the melodramatic suggestions that somehow Graham and his party peers should feel guilty about making full use of the power they have to govern.

They shouldn’t.

That’s the bottom line.

And it’s time to stop denying it — and to start dealing with it.

Action, not tears

Indeed here is what you should be doing instead if you feel as strongly as you do that what’s going on is wrong, unfair and lousy.

Or that it’s whatever other word you’d like to conjure up to sum up watching public figures whose positions you don’t like wield power in ways you don’t like to seat a justice you don’t want to become the ninth member of the Supreme Court.

You should stop pointing a finger — and start circling a date.

That date, of course, is Nov. 3.

That date, of course, is Election Day.

The reality of politics in America — now more than ever — is that power isn’t gained by shedding tears into handkerchiefs but by flexing muscles in voting booths.

So what’s it going to be, whiners?

You’ve shown us you’ve got the crying part down pat when it comes to complaining about those rushing to find a replacement for Justice Ginsburg.

Now how about the part that calls for turning those empty tears into real action and actual change?

This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 8:56 AM with the headline "Graham and the GOP have the power to seat a justice now. That’s reality. Deal with it."