RBG is gone. And we can’t even properly mourn her.
It’s the day we all dreaded, but subconsciously knew was inevitable: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87. Our feminist hero. The notorious RBG of the Supreme Court. The seemingly unbreakable superwoman, who turned out to be mortal, is no longer here. It’s a devastating, incalculable loss. And the worst part? America won’t even get to properly mourn her before we’re thrown into the next political quagmire.
Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, didn’t even wait two hours after the announcement of Justice Ginsburg’s death before declaring that the Senate would confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. McConnell’s heartlessness, not to mention blatant hypocrisy, is hardly surprising. In an article in The New Yorker, a former White House official confirmed that McConnell has spent the past year giddily running around Washington telling Trump donors that Ginsburg’s likely death would be the Republicans’ “October surprise.”
Stacking the courts with Trump’s judicial nominees has been a top priority for Republicans. After all, these are lifetime positions: a chance to push the country to the fringes of the conservatism, even if Republicans lose legislative and executive power. For this reason, Republicans have been laser-focused on obtaining control over the judiciary and they’ve largely gotten what they wanted. Throughout the Trump presidency, Republicans have confirmed at least 200 federal judges, the vast majority of whom are young, white, right-wing men. Moreover, Republicans have also gotten two Supreme Court justices and McConnell is absolutely delighted at the idea that the GOP has just secured a third.
If it wasn’t already clear, McConnell is an amoral, spineless hypocrite. According to the “Merrick Garland rule,” you know the nonexistent Constitutional clause that McConnell pulled out of thin air because he really hated the idea that Obama would get another Supreme Court nominee, no president should get to nominate a Supreme Court justice during an election year. It’s a rule that McConnell himself made up (but blames on former Vice President Joe Biden) and will happily ignore as he jams through a third Supreme Court nominee.
Make no mistake, McConnell remembers exactly what he said about Garland, and so do his Republican sycophants who were all too eager to confirm the constitutionality of the “Merrick Garland rule” in 2016, but hypocrisy has no impact on their behavior. (Senator Lindsay Graham previously said if this exact situation arose, to “use my words against me.”) Republicans have all but told us that they play by a different set of rules. Their entire political ethos could be summarized as, “Best of luck trying to get us to abide by our own rules, guys!” Call them hypocrites and they’ll just laugh and laugh as they secure a right-wing Supreme Court for generations to come. Republicans, especially McConnell, will do anything and everything to tighten their grip on political power. Constitutionality and consistency be damned.
Here’s the thing, I hate that we’ve already been drawn into a political tug-of-war not even 24 hours after Ginsburg’s death. We haven’t had the chance to properly mourn Ginsburg’s passing or honor her legacy. RBG did so much in her 87 years on this earth. She accomplished so much. She meant so much to marginalized communities in the United States, especially women. We asked so much of Ginsburg, probably too much if we’re being honest. Ginsburg knew what her death would mean and she fought until the bitter end. Millions of folks viewed Ginsburg as the last vestige of American democracy: holding a country together that was coming apart at the seams and quickly devolving into an autocracy. It was too much pressure to put on any one person, let alone an 87-year-old cancer survivor, yet she consistently rose to the occasion anyway.
Ginsburg’s power was inspirational. In an era when so many of our politicians are wannabe autocrats constantly trying to prove how intimidating, strong, and masculine they are, none of them could hold a candle to the might of a tiny, frail, 87-year-old woman. Ginsburg showed us time and time again that you didn’t have to be a pompous white man to be a powerful political force and that representation was nothing short of miraculous. Her presence was an inspiration to countless women, myself included.
RGB deserves all of the praise and adoration that we can lavish onto her memory. If you want my opinion, she’s worthy of a national holiday. But, in the age of Trump, we will inevitably be denied this right. Ginsburg’s death is a one-two punch: not only is she gone, but we can’t even honor her legacy in the way that she deserves. If we do, the left will just be accused of wasting time. McConnell has already made his intentions crystal clear and Democrats must prepare for the inevitable political battle. While I understand this, it’s still wrong and unfair.
This is one of the cruelest realities of the Trump era: our beloved RBG has died and they’ve robbed us the opportunity to mark her passing. It’s deliberately malicious. As the brilliant columnist Adam Serwer has repeatedly explained, “the cruelty is the point.” It’s enough to make you want to throw in the towel, but of course, that would be antithetical to Ginsburg’s legacy. Nothing would make McConnell happier than getting to deny Ginsburg her dying wish that she not be replaced by this president. We have to fight like hell to honor Ginsburg’s last request. It’s the least we can do for a woman who did everything in her power to make this country a more just and equitable place for all.
Ginsburg’s death feels like yet another blow in an increasingly scary nightmare that just won’t end. I couldn’t find a silver lining here if I tried, but there was a perspective on Ginsburg’s passing that provided me with a glimmer of solace. Last night, author Ruth Franklin tweeted, “According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness. Baruch Dayan HeEmet.” I can honestly think of no one else more fitting of this title. Try as they might, these small, insignificant men can’t take this honor away from Ginsburg nor will they erase her legacy. We will carry on the fight, just as she taught us. Rest in power, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
