The MAGA hatred of Amy Coney Barrett is completely deranged
"MAGA Republicans" need to stop processing everything through the lens of personal loyalty to Trump.
When Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, many conservatives were excited. That nomination and eventual confirmation paid off in a big way in June of 2022, when Barrett was the fifth vote to overturn the abominable Roe v. Wade decision. But last week, the very same conservatives who praised Barrett and cheered her confirmation turned against her. She is weak, she is a Communist, she is disloyal, and she has done nothing other than vote to overturn Roe. The final claim is totally laughable, as a review of the decisions in just the last two years shows:
In 2023:
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in striking down the race-based admissions policies at Harvard and University of North Carolina.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in striking down President Biden's attempt to forgive student loans without the consent of Congress.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in preserving a web designer's First Amendment right to refuse to create sites for same-sex weddings.
♣ - When the court ruled against an Alabama congressional district map, Barrett voted with the minority.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in restricting the administrative state's authority in regulating wetlands.
In 2024:
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority that President Trump has limited immunity from prosecution on charges related to the 2020 election. (So much for Barrett being "disloyal.")
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in striking down the Chevron Doctrine that required courts to grant wide authority to the bureaucracy to write "rules" that have the force of law without Congressional action.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in allowing Oregon to restrict homeless encampments, rejecting the claim that such bans were "cruel and unusual punishment."
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in striking down the Securities and Exchange Commission's administrative courts, strengthening due process.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in striking down the Trump Administration's ban on bump sticks, siding against President Trump but protecting Second Amendment rights.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in allowing the National Rifle Association to sue New York state officials who violated the NRA's First Amendment rights.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in allowing South Carolina to continue using a Congressional map that had been struck down for alleged gerrymandering.
♣ - Barrett voted with the majority in striking down Colorado's partisan attempt to remove President Trump from the ballot. (So much for Barrett being "disloyal.")
The source of "MAGA" anger and bitterness is that Barrett ruled against Donald Trump's bid to delay his sentencing in the "hush money" case. Barrett sided with the majority, denying Trump's motion and courting the furious anger of "MAGA Republicans." Now, let's be clear: The "hush money" case was a scam from the very beginning, as I have detailed previously. Trump should have never been put on trial, much less convicted, when legal precedent and the facts of the case would never lead to a conviction if viewed outside of a hyper-partisan lens. But the majority ruling changes absolutely nothing. Trump was a "convicted felon" before the Supreme Court declined to intervene, and that has not changed. Trump has been sentenced to absolutely nothing. Refusing to intervene does not harm Trump at all, other than a minor embarrassment.
It is certainly legitimate to criticize the Supreme Court's majority opinion allowing the sentencing to go forward, especially given the partisan nature of the charges, the irrelevance of the so-called "crimes" to the 2016 election, previous court precedent in the John Edwards prosecution, and prosecutorial misconduct. One could argue in good faith that Barrett was wrong, and should have went along with the other conservatives. But even if she is wrong, that does not mean she is a "sellout" or a "communist" or a "traitor." Again, she has been a solid (if imperfect) constitutional conservative in her votes. The people viciously attacking Barrett need to develop a sense of proportion - for their own mental health, if not for their political credibility.
Barrett has been a solid constitutional conservative and has been on the right side of many rulings – including rulings that directly favored Donald Trump personally. But for some "MAGA Republicans," everything is processed through the lens of personal loyalty to Trump. If you stand against Trump on anything – especially something that directly involves him – you are a bad person, deserving of condemnation, a traitor, a sellout and so on. This "all or nothing" mentality is poisonous and has no place in the conservative movement or the Republican Party. We need to be the party of principle, not a cult of personality.