Way, way back in those halcyon days (cliché alert!) of 2016 before the election, when everyone (including Donald Trump himself) thought that he couldn’t possibly win, there was a list circulating of all the wonderful things he’d do if the impossible happened and he indeed managed to get elected. I’m not going to dive back into the past to get the entire list, but I do remember that one of them was “Donald Trump will appoint the best people to the thousands of positions he’ll need to fill.” Well, ha to that one. I don’t think I need to say any more.
Recently, though, I was sent another list, this one of what our current President has accomplished in his first less-than-two years in office, so I decided to write a series of short posts taking on each point. Here’s the list, first of all:
- Appointed justices and judges
- Empowered military
- Reformed tax law
- Oversaw booming economy (unemployment, manufacturing, wages)
- Oversaw defeat of ISIS
- Withdrew from Paris Climate Accord
- Decertified Iran weapons deal
- Secured release of hostages from Turkey, North Korea (without paying ransoms)
- Moved US Embassy to Jerusalem
- Eliminated Obamacare mandate
- Took numerous actions supporting right to life
These are extremely general and generic statements, without any supporting detail. I haven’t been able to find the source for this list; indeed, there are much more detailed, nuanced lists on various pro-Trump websites, including the infamous “WorldNetDaily.” But since this was what I was sent, this is what I’m working with.
Let’s look at #1: “Appointed justice and judges.”
Absolutely true, and probably the only one on the list that can be touted as such, which is probably why it’s number one. I find it sort of amusing that the accomplishment isn’t “appointed good justices and judges,” but never mind on that.
Here’s the thing: that accomplishment is largely, almost entirely, due to Mitch McConnell. To be sure, McConnell needed a Republican president in order to leave his mark on the judiciary, but any Republican would have done the job as long as he was willing to pick from an approved list. Donald Trump was handed such a list from The Federalist Society (with input from The Heritage Foundation) during the 2016 campaign and promised to confine his Supreme Court choices to those recommendations. When Trump was sworn in, there was a vacancy on SCOTUS that he could fill right away, which he did with the estimable Neil Gorsuch.
But why was that vacancy there in the first place? Because McConnell refused to allow a vote on Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s pick to replace Antonin Scalia, who died in February of 2016. He also led the Senate in holding brief “pro forma” sessions during the normal Senate recesses so that Obama could not make a recess appointment of Garland.
There are many sound conservatives who believe that McConnell was wrong to block consideration of Garland. Remember, it’s not that McConnell made sure that Garland didn’t have enough votes to confirm his nomination, which would have been a perfectly legitimate political move. Instead, McConnell refused to allow the vote in the first place. I don’t know whether or not Garland would have been confirmed had the vote proceeded, but the fact of the matter is that for almost a full year SCOTUS was without a ninth justice, not because of Donald Trump, but because of Mitch McConnell.
McConnell has also been instrumental in getting a raft of conservative judges confirmed in lower courts. He seems intent on leaving his mark here, and he has indeed done so and will almost certainly continue to do so for the rest of the time that he has a Republican president with whom to work. So isn’t that a god thing? Well, yes. As conservatives we can be pleased that solid people are populating the benches of the judiciary. There were a few appointees who were not confirmed, but the consensus is that McConnell has succeeded in reshaping the judiciary for a generation. This accomplishment drives non-conservatives crazy. And there’s nothing they can do about it: judges and justices are appointed for life.
So on the whole a positive accomplishment to put in the Republican column. Just don’t give the credit to Donald Trump! And note my caveat “on the whole.” I have said, many conservatives have said, that the price for all of this judicial re-making is too high. Many sincere people felt that they “had” to vote for Donald Trump because of the Supreme Court issue, especially because of the abortion issue. Now, as we head into a chaotic 2019, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that nominating and then electing Donald Trump has been a huge, indeed a YUUUUUGE, mistake. So, on the one hand, Trump really doesn’t deserve the credit for the judiciary’s overhaul, and on the other hand he’s rapidly destroying the GOP, thus pretty much making sure that McConnell’s picks will be the last conservative ones for a very, very, very long time. (Very.)
Here are some excellent follow-up articles (including one by me!):
“The Folly of Making Donald Trump the Pro-Life Poster Boy”
“Overturning Roe v. Wade isn’t worth compromising with Trump, my fellow Evangelicals”
“The Supreme Court Is a Dangerous Conservative Obsession”