I think the assassination of a supreme court justice is the most delicate thread that could be severed to cause the collapse of the American government. Its right at the heart of the current balance of powers and plunges us into escalation we can't go back from. Its the accelerationists dream. Governors, senators, representatives, even the president are all replaceable elected officials. The partisan electorate can just elect someone similar to them. But supreme court justices are supposed to be a nonpartisan life term appointment on merit and competence, not ideologues. And the Roe v Wade -> Dobbs v Jackson cuts through that, as the majority (will) decry it injects partisan policy into the judiciary by usurping the powers of the legislative branch. And nobody can watch the media furor around this decision and the decades of supreme court appointments prior to it and pretend otherwise. But because they are unelected, this creates the perverse incentive for partisan gain by killing judges. It changes the partisan balance of the court. No partisan appointment by the sitting president that alters that balance would be accepted as legitimate by the opposition party. It would lead to chaos and an unreconcilable wound.
That is, unless it could be reconciled. There's that vain tiny fleeting hope that rests on a sitting president acting magnanimously. If the court remains partisan, then if an opposition party aligned judge was ever assassinated, the one way a president has to heal the national wound would be to allow the opposition to pick their replacement and keep the balance intact. Refuse to take advantage of the murder, vow to preserve status quo ante. Could we ever see that from Joe Biden and the current democratic party? The answer is no. A hard no, they would destroy the entire country and plunge us into civil war and total societal collapse before doing the sane and reasonable thing. I couldn't have less faith in a politician. I would have severely doubted it from Donald Trump if some MAGA terrorist went after Sotomayor or whatever, but at least with someone so erratic it was within the realm of possibility. Joe Biden has done everything wrong at every turn, reliably so.
This post was edited by Goomshill on Jun 9 2022 08:01am