Kavanaugh Confirmation Culminates in Galvanizing of Republican Party Enthusiasm

By Bob Shanahan

It’s over. It’s finally over. On Saturday, about three months after being nominated, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as the 114th Supreme Court justice.

 

For the first time in a long time, I am proud of the Republican-controlled Senate and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for doing what had to be done and confirming Kavanaugh despite an all out assault from uncorroborated accusers, Trump Deranged Democrats, and a colluding mainstream media.

 

The left have collectively lost its mind in a fruitless battle to block Kavanaugh’s path to our country’s highest court. Democrats did everything they could to punt the confirmation until after the midterm elections, smearing a respected judge and his family in the process. Throughout the last few weeks we have seen paid protesters badger senators in hallways and elevators, deranged leftists shout and howl in the gallery of the Senate while the final votes were tallied, Amy Schumer going out of her way to get arrested so she could signal her virtue, and Democratic Senators throwing presumption of innocence out the window in its latest humiliating attempt to stop President Trump and his Republican colleagues from claiming another victory for the country.

 

But their efforts appear to have backfired. Elections have consequences and the Democrats’ unveiling of Ford at the last minute, against her wishes, proves what lengths they will go to to oppose this president. Does anyone watching these emotional wrecks on the left want to give them any more power in Washington next year?  

 

 

In midterm elections, voter turnout is always very low. Therefore, it all comes down to voter enthusiasm, with more importance on local races and issues rather than national stories and trends.

 

With the 2018 midterms less than a month away, Republican voter enthusiasm has closed the gap with Democrats. According to a new NPR/PBS/Marist poll, Republican voters have caught up with Democrats in viewing the November election as “very important,” now behind only two points (82% to 80%). In the same poll in July, before the Kavanaugh fiasco, Democrats had a 10 point enthusiasm advantage.

 

After the political hit job that was the Kavanaugh hearing, the result, “at least in the short run, is the Republican base was awakened,” according to Marist’s Lee Miringoff.

 

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, however, takes a more nuanced look at the polls. He agrees that there has been a slight uptick in Republican enthusiasm with a now smaller chance of Republicans losing the House and Senate. But he also thinks that the last few weeks of the Kavanaugh confirmation have felt more like a presidential election, where the news is more nationalized as opposed to focused on specific local races, which could only end up being a momentary spike for Republicans in the polls.

 

“One plausible narrative,” Silver writes, “is that the Kavanaugh hearings are helping to excite Republican voters and reduce the ‘enthusiasm gap’ with Democrats.” One example of this trend in action is two new North Dakota polls putting Democratic incumbent Senator Heidi Heitkamp down by double digits. Another is the few polls showing a close Senate race in New Jersey. Taking a look at the overall generic ballot, from Quinnipiac University, Democrats’ lead is down to 7 points from 14 points previously.

 

Silver seems to conclude that “there’s actually something there for Republicans” and “that their position has genuinely improved from where it was a week ago.” I was concerned after I saw a poll after the hearing show four in ten Americans believing Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh that Republicans would cave to Democratic bullying and give up on the confirmation process or allow it to get delayed until after the midterms (the Dems’ strategy all along). Furthermore, a Harvard-Harris poll right before the hearing had 36 percent of voters in favor of his confirmation with 38 percent opposed and 26 percent undecided. After the hearing, however, support was unchanged, but opposition ticked up to 44 percent as many undecideds moved to the opposition column. Nevertheless, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley overcame tremendous odds in getting the confirmation vote of Kavanaugh to the floor of the Senate and did not give in to a 24-hour news cycle attack on the nominee. In the end, Silver stated that Republicans’ position, from a polling standpoint, has barely changed from a month ago.

 

It is important to remember that the news cycle is accelerating at a more rapid rate with each passing week. While Kavanaugh was all we could talk about over the last few weeks, it could seem like a distant memory come election day with another controversy or explosive story impacting the polls in one direction or another. Democrats gambled with their shameful attempt to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation. They think showing their constituents they are still doing all they can to “resist” Trump will rally their base enough to give them more power. While that might be true, I also very much believe that this latest political dogfight has rallied Republicans just as much, if not more, to go to the polls in November to keep Democrats out of power for another two years.

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Focusing on the top races to watch in November, things look good in the battleground states for Republicans right now. According to a Fox News poll taken from September 29 to October 2, the number of Republicans feeling “extremely” interested in the November elections is up in battleground races in the states of Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, and Tennessee.

 

Democratic attempts to block Kavanaugh have backfired. “It’s like pouring gasoline on the Republican base,” said one GOP strategist to CBS News. “It’s brought into stark focus the differences between the two parties and galvanized Trump supporters who might have sat this midterm out.”

 

 

Why should we want to keep Democrats out of power? A look at how the left has behaved in recent weeks has not only frightened conservatives, it has also unnerved many moderate Republicans and Democrats. The conservative base across America has been rallied while the left gets more unhinged as we approach November 6th.

 

Resistance is futile. The left proceeded with their blatant intimidation tactics, ushered in a horde of paid protestors, and pushed a mainstream media-concocted defamation of a respected judge with 36 year old allegations that were not corroborated by anyone else. The left demanded Judge Kavanaugh prove a negative. The left assumed he was guilty until proven innocent. The left let the #MeToo movement cloud their judgment in this specific instance. Thankfully, the bedrock American value of presumption of innocence persisted against the resistance.

 

 

The Democrats are in complete meltdown mode.

 

They actually believe Kavanaugh was a rapist. Democratic senators called Kavanaugh evil and anyone who did not oppose his confirmation as evil. They told white male Republicans to sit down, shut up, and believe every accusation of sexual assault, no matter the lack of evidence or corroboration. Democrats have done everything in their power to ruin a man’s life and reputation. These self-claimed compassionate Americans have become mad, mean, and insane due to their lack of power in DC. In turn, liberals from Seattle to New York can’t stand the fact that they live in a country where President Trump is president. They got too comfortable during the Obama years and still can’t cope with reality. So, they lash out.

 

The Women’s March on Twitter called Susan Collins, who gave a historic speech in defense of Kavanaugh and the presumption of innocence, a rape apologist. The GOP senator from Maine was bribed to change her vote. In a similar vein, a writer for Stephen Colbert’s show celebrated the character assassination of Brett Kavanaugh, tweeting, “Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life.” How is this compassionate? How is this inclusive? How is this rational? How is this American?

 

 

The Democrats’ strategy is flailing. They have let their emotions override whatever rationality they have left. They are doing everything they can to oppose Trump at every turn. And that’s fine. But to smear a man’s reputation for political purposes and polarize the nation even more is a foolish tactic.

 

The Democrats’ playbook has proven ineffective so far despite their best efforts. Republicans have been galvanized and many more on the right will likely show up to the polls who weren’t planning to before the confirmation process. This November’s election will be a big indicator as to which way the political winds are blowing. While the incumbent party historically loses seats in its first midterm, the latest Kavanaugh drama might throw a wrench in that trend.

 

We’ll find out in 29 days.

 

Follow me @BobShanahanMan

 

Bob is a freelance journalist and researcher. He remains forever skeptical of the mainstream media narrative and dedicated to uncovering the truth. Bob writes about politics (in DC and CA), economics, cultural trends, public policy, media, history, real estate, Trump Derangement Syndrome, and geopolitics. Bob grew up in Northern California, went to college in Southern California, and lived 4+ years in Seattle. He now lives in sunny Sacramento. His writing also appears in Citizen Truth and has been posted on ZeroHedge and Signs of the Times.

 

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