A left-wing group of political activists is planning to tear down the president's nominee for the Supreme Court, no matter who he picks. Their plan: whatever it takes.
The group, Patriotic Millionaires, penned an open letter on their website imploring Democrat leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to "take a stand" and do anything in their power to "permanently discredit" whoever Trump nominates to the bench. (Emphasis included in original copy)
You clearly lack the legislative power to stop the morally-bankrupt Republican hypocrites in the U.S. Senate from confirming a far-right ideologue to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court just days before the most divisive and consequential election in American history.
This unfortunate reality demands that you embrace the inescapable moral and constitutional obligation you have to use every power at your disposal to brand this corrupt process as the illegitimate farce it is and to discredit permanently the judicial fitness of any nominee who agrees to be a part of it. Any nominee willing to be considered or confirmed by this sham process is definitionally unfit to serve in the United States Supreme Court.
The group of activists, helmed by founder and president Erica Payne, describes themselves as an organization of wealthy Americans focused on "power and money." Their self-description says it all:
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country’s political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three “first” principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
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On a Thursday conference call, Payne underscored the group's exuberance to ruin any person who the president might consider to replace the late Justice Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. She tasked Senate Democrats and activists with "mak[ing] this an unbelievably painful process for Senate Republicans” and “kick[ing] the f--- out of” Democratic senators who won’t fight hard enough," according to a report from the Washington Examiner.
She assessed that the current rhetoric being spouted by Congressional Democrats fell short of what they needed to be doing and considered their weakness to be “utter bulls--t."
The group demanded that Senate Democrats take a number of steps in the days to come as an effort to thwart the confirmation of Trump's nominee and disrupt the constitutional process. Suggested actions included:
- Boycott the confirmation hearings entirely;
- Block the typically-proforma ‘Unanimous Consent’ agreements that set the daily schedule and the terms of conduct for Senate business, including any resolutions to adjourn the Senate;
- Repeatedly force your Republican colleagues to produce the quorum of 51 Senators necessary to conduct Senate business on their own.
With that effort, however, even Patriotic Millionaires predicted that the Republicans would be successful in their duties to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. But to the group, that didn't mean that Democrats in the Senate should not do everything they can to try to sabotage their effort and destroy the life of whoever was nominated.
Directing the entirety of their sentiment to the 45 Democrats and two left-wing Independents in the Senate, the Patriotic Millionaires said they have the duty to act against the duly elected president and abandon their sworn oath to the people of the United States to uphold the law of the Constitution.
"To be clear, you no longer have the option to stand idly by and wait for things to ‘play out.’ You are risking the integrity of our country’s most sacred values, institutions, and system of democracy itself if you confer legitimacy on a nakedly corrupt, profoundly illegitimate process. Sincerely, Every Decent American."
