Since the South Carolina Senate race merited a few mentions in my analysis earlier, it's worth pointing out how low Lindsey Graham's opponent is stooping to try to pull off the upset. Riding an unprecedented fundraising wave, Democrat Jaime Harrison -- who recently invoked segregation and slavery while quasi-dodging questions about eliminating the filibuster and court-packing -- is trying to dupe people into believing that Graham waxed nostalgic about segregation during the Barrett confirmation hearings. This idiocy shouldn't even need to be rebutted, but we're living in an age of idiocy, so it probably does:
.@LindseyGrahamSC just called segregation “the good old days.” The good old days for who, Senator?
— Jaime Harrison (@harrisonjaime) October 14, 2020
It’s 2020, not 1920. Act like it. pic.twitter.com/qVhhfp7oRY
Graham was teasing out the concept of constitutional "super precedents," which Judge Barrett has described as those very rare pillars of precedent that are so overwhelmingly settled as to be immune from toppling. One component of identifying such precedent is the reality that virtually nobody challenges or questions it anymore. This is true of a ruling like Brown v. Board -- which struck down racial segregation -- but not of other rulings that remain actively controversial. Graham was following up on this point by noting that there is no effort to reverse course on desegregation in America. His use of the term "good old days" was painfully obviously sarcastic in nature, as should have been apparent to any sentient person watching, a truth he's confirmed. His whole point was that everybody believes segregation represents the bad old days. Harrison, being either an unfathomable dolt or an intentional liar and demagogue, decided to insult everyone's intelligence by pretending otherwise. Why? To raise more money of course.
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them. @LindseyGrahamSC just reminisced on “the good old days of segregation.” Listen to him. And then chip in to #SendLindseyHome," he tweeted, adding a link to his fundraising page. Someone is showing us who he is here, and it's not Graham. While we're on the subject of racial ugliness, Sen. John Kennedy offered Judge Barrett an opportunity to respond to a particularly vile attack on her family and character by a woke professor seen by many critics as a racist grifter:
ACB's response to garbage takes like this.pic.twitter.com/uRcY65r0Ve https://t.co/4DqsBPvTin
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) October 14, 2020
"How low can you go?" Kennedy asked, rhetorically. Very, very low, it seems. And with several weeks left in this election cycle from hell, it's likely a safe bet that the worst is yet to come. Back on substance, in case you missed it, I'll leave you with a surprisingly lovely and uplifting conclusion to the portion of the hearings in which the nominee was on the hot seat, from both sides of the aisle:
And my verdict:
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 14, 2020