Ask Lemmy

Everything in the link you provided says that Obama could have done a shitton more to ensure that the Senate Judiciary Committee actually did their jobs.

Uh .. I'm seeing a whole lot of letters being written urging the senate to perform their expected duty. Not seeing anything actually proposing actions Obama could have done other than withdraw Garland and nominate someone else. But why would he have when the Republicans told Obama point blank that they would not hold any hearings or votes for any candidate and they followed through for all judicial appointments (not just SCOTUS, there were like 70 federal judges nominated in 2016, and over 100 empty seats at the end of his presidency) unless Hillary won so she couldn't nominate someone more liberal) and Garland was already a name that the Republicans had name-dropped themselves as a reasonable nominee and they stonewalled him anyways. Maybe you could direct link to the parts of the article that say what specific legal avenues Obama had available to force the Republican committee to advance the nominee and McConnell to hold a floor vote. Something that 29 Democratic state attorneys general and the 194-strong Democractic House Representatives and 44 Democratic US Senators all overlooked.

America is now two good shakes away from a Fascist dictatorship. The midterm elections - or America’s own “Night of the Long Knives”, which seems all the more likely due to the rhetoric surrounding Kirk’s assassination - Will cinch this future in the bag.

Don't disagree with you at all on any of this. But it's decidedly not Obama's fault that the SCOTUS seat went