re: #169 Hecuba’s daughter

I disagree about SCOTUS appointments. The new Federalist Society members are far more devoted to overturning Roe. The most vile Scotus members — Thomas and Alito — were not appointed by Trump but by Bush 41 and Bush 43. There is no doubt Roe was on the chopping block with any new Republicans appointed to the Court.

Yes, FedSoc has been taken over by the SoCon faction (there used to be a pretty solid balance between SoCons and libertarian types, at least when I ran in those circles in law school)… but my thinking is more of a political calculation mode (something that Trump’s lizard brain can’t quite comprehend). Elected Republicans have know that their base wanted Roe overturned, so it has always been a solid turnout generator. But they also knew, deep down, that if the dog ever caught the proverbial tire, they were fucked - which is basically what has happened to them every time since Dobbs was handed down. So my thinking is that Cruz or Rubio or Jeb or whomever would have appointed someone that had all the right credentials but who ended up “surprising” everyone on abortion cases. Then they’d be able to continue running on the issue without actually being able to do anything.

And let’s face it, for the last 30 years or so, “running on issues without actually being able to do anything about them” has been page 1 of the GOP playbook.