Pete Riehm
Despite Joe Biden’s consistent evasions and persistent denials during the campaign, he and his radical leftist handlers always planned to pack the Supreme Court. They simply lied and the Democrat Media Complex covered for them. No one was fooled, but like watching a train wreck or a stolen election, we just watched it coming in relatively stunned silence.
It was never really a question. Democrats knew Americans would never vote for their extreme progressive agenda, so they cheated in more states than we know to ensure they would steal the election. Therefore, they also know Americans will vehemently contest their brazen power grab and aggressively resist the imposition of their oppressive policies, so they must seal the deal. As long as they can control elections, the only remaining obstacle is a fair, independent Supreme Court upholding the Constitution and striking down their unconstitutional usurpations, so the Court must be brought to heel.
Biden created a commission to study packing the Court, but Congress could not wait. Congress introduced bills to increase the Court by four seats from nine to thirteen. Still stung by Trump and McConnell outmaneuvering Democrats on the last three Supreme Court appointments, Democrats are using Republican’s deft use of the system as an excuse to change the system that’s worked for centuries. Forget that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said “Nine is just fine;” or that Biden himself called it a “bone-headed idea” in 1983. Democrat hypocrisy knows no bounds or shame in their lustful quest for power; they covet irresistible one-party rule and will have it at any cost.
We have seen this sinister scheme before. After winning the biggest electoral landslide ever in 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was frustrated with the Supreme Court striking down parts of his socialist New Deal. With super majorities in both the House and Senate in 1937, he proposed increasing the Court by an astonishing six seats to fifteen, but even his own party realized the grave damage this would do to our Constitutional Republic and rebuffed his efforts. But as Senator Ted Cruz pointed out, the difference this time is congressional Democrats are cheering this tyrannical pursuit for dictatorial power.
There are perilous tales of high court packing from other countries like Chile and Peru, but the most devastating and similar lessons come from Venezuela in just the last twenty years. Elected in 1999, Hugo Chavez was annoyed with Venezuela’s independent Supreme Court that ruled against him several times, so he passed a law in 2004 increasing the Court by 12 seats from 20 to 32. Thereafter, in some 45,000 cases the Court never again ruled against the corrupt Chavez regime!
With the Supreme Court in his pocket, Chavez ran as an avowed socialist in 2006; and with some help from a company now known to Americans, Dominion Voting Systems ensured he won handily. Chavez then commandeered the private sector from banking to energy to farming to media, and thereby took total control of the economy. With no checks and balances, Chavez suppressed and even imprisoned any political opposition. Even after his death in 2014, the Court continued to do his bidding.
In 2015, Venezuelans elected opposition parties to super majorities in the National Assembly, but before they could be seated, the outgoing socialist legislature replaced 13 Supreme Court justices. The restacked Court promptly stripped the new legislature if its powers. In 2017, the complicit Court went further and declared the National Assembly illegitimate and tried to transfer their legislative powers to itself! Widespread riots forced the Court to back down, but they ruled Chavez’s successor could rule by executive orders without consulting the legislature. Sound familiar?
The Venezuelan scenario is exactly what Democrats seek in America. The ultra-leftists in the Democrat Party will use a stacked Supreme Court to establish unchecked unassailable power. They will ram through their socialist agenda and the compromised Court will rubber stamp it. And don't think they won’t use their unrestrained powers to squash any opposition and even outlaw it. That’s why they keep trying to smear Trump supporters as insurrectionists: they are laying the groundwork to not only silence conservatives, but oppress them out of existence.
Some pundits claim this is a bridge too far and Democrats cannot pull this off; they muse this is only a scare tactic to intimidate the Court into more liberal rulings. Perhaps—but make no mistake, they will try to use a stacked court to add senators from the new states of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. They will cement an ironclad one-party rule.
This may all sound like just political wrangling, but Democrats are coming for our rights, most notably the Second Amendment. They will put the final nail in the First Amendment censoring anything contrary to their propaganda and curbing religious freedom, but they will also certainly impose gun control to disarm law-abiding citizens. Folks, this is the last straw; we will have no means to resist their tyranny. We MUST STOP them now while we still can.
“Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts” (Isaiah 1:23).
Pete Riehm is the host of Common Sense Radio heard 8 pm every Thursday on FMTalk106.5 or streaming at fmtalk1065.com. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or on Twitter @PeteRiehm or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/riehm
© Pete RiehmThe views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.