Forget about it, it’s over. Democrats need to put the Supreme Court appointment fight behind them as quickly as possible and move on to the real battle in November.
They have no power in the Senate, and they cannot afford to spin their wheels over an appointment whose conclusion is already foretold by the Republican majority.
And there is no avenue of attack open to them. The fear of a rollback of Roe vs. Wade or a shutdown of Obamacare plays well in blue states, but it also carries the potential for blowback in the battleground states.
Like it or not, the question of who succeeds the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg plays big in the media and with the base of both the Democratic and Republican parties, but it doesn’t resonate with the average American.
Instead of dragging out the inevitable, Democrats should cut their losses and concentrate on winning the presidency.
Joe Biden is ahead in the polls, but he’s hardly a sure thing. He’s never going to be a rock star, and the issues that have carried him so far — President Trump’s coronavirus failings, the economic downturn — could still wane by election day.
It’s all coming down to a mandate on Trump. Biden’s problem is, that puts it all in Trump’s hands — not Biden’s.
Served cold: Democrats’ best revenge for the Republican court packing is to win the White House and Congress in November — then immediately admit the heavily Democratic District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as the 51st and 52nd states.
It would forever shift control of the Senate to Democrats and go a long way toward fixing the red-state bias of the electoral college.
Mail storm: President Trump is being his usual idiot self when he raises questions about the validity of voting by mail. But at least when it comes to California and a handful of other states that automatically send out mail ballots, he does have a point.
Most states require voters to ask for mail ballots, which is how California used to do it. That way, they know a real person is reaching out.
The way it’s working in California this year, however, every active voter on the state rolls will be sent a ballot. No request required.
What much of the public does not know is that it’s very hard to strike someone from the voter rolls. The rule is, if someone misses two consecutive federal general elections — a presidential election and a midterm — and then misses two more after failing to respond to a mailed query from county registrars, they’re supposed to be tossed off the rolls.
So, you can be gone from your registered address — or dead — for a long time before the state gets around to erasing you. Some estimates say that up to 10% of California’s 20 million registered voters aren’t where the state thinks they are.
Nonetheless, ballots will be going to their listed addresses. So some people who have moved won’t get ballots. Residents at the old addresses will get ballots for people who are no longer living there or are no longer living, period.
There are safeguards against fraudulent voting — for starters, registrars carefully check signatures on the ballot envelopes to make sure they match what’s on file with the state.
I hope so, because any screwups will give weight to cockamamie voter fraud conspiracies, which is just what Trump wants.
Tough question: “You’re a practical kind of politician,” someone told me on a Zoom round table the other day. “What’s your position on whether Ruth Bader Ginsburg should have resigned when Barack Obama was still president and given him the opportunity to name her replacement instead of Donald Trump?”
I said: “Your definition of me as a practical politician is correct. And being a practical politician, I’m not going to answer that question. Thank you.”
Dancing in the streets: John’s Grill has taken outside dining to a new level.
Carlos Reyes, the violinist with the enhanced sound system, turned Ellis Street between Stockton and Powell into a dance hall last Sunday, with everybody in masks and 6 feet apart, shaking it like it was the Summer of Love on Haight Street.
And here’s hoping you can shake it wherever you are.
See you next week.
Want to sound off? Email wbrown@sfchronicle.com.
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Willie Brown: Democrats need to forget about the court and concentrate on November - San Francisco Chronicle
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