I have an outside the box idea to cool off the impending firestorm about the Supreme Court opening. Assuming they can't find four Republican senators to be consistent with their previous position of four years ago (the best-case solution), this might work...
1. Democrats should agree to support a compromise candidate, preferably a woman that is 65 or over (as Obama tried to do with Garland pick--he was an older compromise candidate). Getting a huge vote--90 or more, would immediately calm the furor.
2. When they regain control of the Senate, Democrats should pass a law limiting a Supreme Court term to a maximum of 30 years. That's a very reasonable amount of time (maybe even too reasonable), but it would mean the next president would replace...Clarence Thomas (1991) and Steven Breyer (1994). The court would remain conservative, but it would be a 5-4 court, with an institutionalist 5th vote (Roberts) to reign in the crazy.
3. It also means the 2024 election would take place without an obvious Supreme Court opening, and thereby reduce the level of animosity there.
Why should both sides agree to this?
The Democrats won't get a better deal. They are not going to be able to stop McConnell, despite his bald and obvious hypocrisy. The Republicans would guarantee they at least keep a conservative majority, while avoiding the inevitable nuclear Democratic reaction (stacking the court). Don't deceive yourself. That nuclear reaction IS inevitable if the Republicans go full-asshole here.
Not that I think anyone will listen to this idea. But it would work in bringing down the temperature, which otherwise has the potential of breaking the new record just set in Death Valley.
Just a thought.
