Welcome to Monday, September 21. One of my favorite songs is Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September.” First line: Do you remember the 21st night of September …. Featuring front man Maurice White and the falsetto of Philip Bailey, EWF was one of the best-selling bands of all time.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Delivers an October Surprise—in September

Political bombshells that upset conventional wisdom are often set off in the last few weeks leading up to election day during a presidential campaign. Sometimes these “October Surprises” have enough political heft to throw carefully plotted calculations into disarray. Sometimes they are planned; other times they’re the result of surreptitious developments outside our control.

The latest surprise is the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last Friday, September 18, at age 87. Fighting recurring bouts of cancer, Ginsburg served for 27 years on the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and was universally admired as an indisputably competent—and thoroughly liberal—jurist. She was the unapologetic champion of abortion and women’s rights, at the forefront for so many years that she was lately known simply as “RGB.”

The reaction to her death has been particularly volatile on the progressive Left because they are out of power and Trump has a chance to tip the balance of the court for the next several years. Their fear and anger is so palpable that many have become overtly hostile toward president Trump, the Senate and Republicans. (LANGUAGE WARNING.)

After months of rioting, looting, arson and murder, it’s hard to imagine that there’s much left to “burn down.” Others are angry at Ginsburg herself, who could have retired from the court under Obama and been replaced by a younger progressive jurist while the Democrats held a Senate majority.

Ginsburg tried to run out the clock, hoping to keep her seat until a “new” president could be elected, but only succeeded in adding a new stick of dynamite to one of the most consequential elections in our history. According to some, her death completely recasts the election around the opportunity to nominate a new Associate Justice to the court.

There’s a bit of justice in all this. Reason Trump has a pretty good chance of replacing Ginsburg is because the Republicans expanded their majority in 2018. Reason Republicans expanded their majority in 2018 was because of the abysmal and obscene behavior of Democrats and the media during the Kavanaugh confirmation. Funny how that works.

Regardless of the outcome, what we have on our hands right now is a total 2020 game changer and one that is almost certainly going to benefit Trump. This isn’t me celebrating the death of a fellow human being. There was a lot to admire about Justice Ginsburg. But this is what it is, and what it is is a legitimate and breathtaking last-minute game changer.

It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this: the Supreme Court is effectively the most powerful institution of our government. We like to think that there are three co-equal branches of government that check and balance each other, but the courts in general, and SCOTUS in particular, have become the ultimate arbiters to settle cases that don’t drop neatly into an offended party’s fall zone.

Chief Justice John Roberts has insisted that, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” but rather an “independent judiciary.” We all know that if Supreme Court nominees were truly apolitical appointments, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

Trump has said he will nominate a candidate and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the candidate will get a vote. Trump recently added the names of three Republican Senators to an updated list of potential nominees if he’s re-elected: Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley. None of them will be nominated since the Senate majority is so thin. Opinions are split on whether Senate Republicans will be able to get the nomination through given the reluctance of moderate Republicans like Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

More of us probably need to have the attitude of Alexandria Brown when it comes to SCOTUS.

Since the masks are off, let me take off mine. I am, underneath it all, an utterly cold blooded pragmatist. I loathe to my DNA that SCOTUS is now most powerful. But it is. That’s not changing. And thus I want that power to be on my side as much as possible.

If that means ramming a vote through as hard and fast as possible, so be it. So be it. I screamed my throat raw and typed my fingers bloody for decades telling everyone not to get to this point. I lost that argument. I lost that argument entirely. Will to power it is then. 

Like it or not, this election is setting up to be a repeat of 2016, when then-candidate Trump released his list of Supreme Court picks to replace Antonin Scalia (who was good friends with Ginsburg). What ratchets up the tension this time around is that the progressive Left has already been planning on how to contest and, if necessary, steal the election. We know that whether the vote count is close or not, it will be litigated. Having a Supreme Court divided 4-3 with John Roberts as the swing vote could result in a deadlocked decision. Then what?

If the Democrats win the White House and take back the Senate while holding the House of Representatives, they promise to “burn it down” anyway by eliminating the Senate filibuster and packing the court. If they do, many of our rights will suddenly be in clear and present danger. I say, make hay while the sun shines.

Those who want to preserve our republic need to get out and vote conservative—in person! Don’t let anyone or any process get between you and casting your vote at the booth.

Then vote like the future of your children depends on it. It does.