Court-packing Democrats sound furious they cocked up the politics of the last decade

The winning post is in sight. The excitement is building. We are only days away from the publication of traditional eve of election pieces, by journalists like me who admire America, saying that for all that nation’s flaws there is something wonderful (wipes away a tear) about the spectacle of tens of millions of Americans voting and choosing the direction of their great country. And there is.

As a Brit, I pass no judgment on the relative merits of the two candidates on offer other than to say that the American public has not been faced with a cultural choice so pitiful, so bleak, since US cinema-goers in June 1978 had to decide whether to go see the Swarm, a bad bee movie starring Michael Caine; Convoy, a film about a convoy; and Sgt Pepper’s, Robert Stigwood’s big screen crime against music involving co-conspirators the Bee Gees.

Who will win between Trump v Biden? No-one knows. Anyone claiming to know is guessing. Let’s face it, the plausible potential outcomes range from a Biden landslide, with all sorts of strange places falling, or a narrow Trump win. And anything within that wide span.

We keep being told the polls are “stable” for Biden, and that lots of adjustments have been made to track what is going on. Can any adjustment really account for the suggestion that nationally turnout could be 65%, up 10 points or so on last time? That is a tidal wave of voters. Almost 70m Americans have voted already. The surge sounds more likely to be anti-Trump voters consumed with righteous anger over the Trump Show and Covid, determined to get him out. Even Texas, much changed in demography, may go for Biden.

But one of the most revealing features of the final week is the fury of the Democrats, particularly the left of the party, on the question of the Supreme Court. It offers a troubling insight into how hysterically they will react if they win or lose.

The Republicans got their new Supreme Court Justice with the confirmation this week of ACB – Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative.

The Democrats declared this the worst constitutional outrage imaginable.

AOC is particularly furious about ACB. The Democrats, she indicated on Tuesday, will do whatever it takes to make the court non-conservative. Some Democrats want Biden to pack the Supreme Court because it now has a conservative super-majority. They want the highest court in the land expanded, so justices that they approve of can be drafted in.

For Joe Biden, trying to play the healer, this row is an electoral mixed bag. He needs motivated young, left-leaning voters to turn out. AOC’s routine could have an appeal there. Equally, he needs suburban women voters in particular to not form the impression that a vote for Biden means that if he wins it is at the behest of socialists like AOC. Socialism has never worked in US politics. The culture is non-socialist, and that includes the overwhelming majority of mainstream Democrats. Sensible people the Americans.

The spoilt brat behaviour, and the call for court-packing, is indicative of a Democrat disconnect from reality, a refusal to calmly process that they have cocked up the politics of the last decade and must live with it and adapt. It looks like displacement. They’re angry with themselves and lashing out.

Obama, supposedly the great persuader, failed to convince a famous Justice to retire. Look what has followed. He bungled the politics of the Court.

The Democratic party then compounded the error by putting up Hillary Clinton in 2016, an unpopular and terrible candidate during a populist insurgency. She lost. This was their own fault and they’ve never accepted the blame. Now they’re trying ancient and confused Joe Biden. Perhaps it’ll work. Let’s see.

The Republicans have indeed exploited the gifts given to them by Democratic bungling. The Republicans have engaged in sharp practices on Court appointments. And the Democrats won’t engage in sharp political practices if they win the Senate and the Presidency? Of course they will, while posing hypocritically from the supposed moral high ground.

Sharp practice in American politics is hardly new. Democrat Lyndon Johnson was an expert. Richard Nixon, a Republican, famously so. FDR is presented now as a secular saint. He continually abused power and wielded coercive authority in a shameless lesson.

It’s American politics. The Democrats have been bad – in procedural, organisational terms – at presidential politics since Obama’s re-election in 2012. This is their fault, not Trump’s.

The lesson is quit whining and blaming your opponents for your shortcomings. Be better at politics.