This election has been framed as a referendum on President Trump. The Democratic National Convention made that very clear. During those four days, Democrats focused their efforts on Trump’s character, giving few nods to policy. Their main policy aim is to vote the president out.
The Republican National Convention similarly put Trump front and center but in a different way. All four of Trump’s adult children, his daughter-in-law, and his son’s girlfriend delivered speeches heralding his goodness.
In practice, the less the election is about Trump himself, the better his chances, and his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett makes it all less about him. The upcoming hearings on her nomination may be able to boost his reelection chances by allowing for the ever-pleasant Barrett to serve as his temporary proxy just weeks before the election.
Barrett isn’t a partisan, but anything nasty that Democrats pull in the hearings (if they show up at all), whether they rely too heavily on questions of Barrett’s Catholic faith or try to caricature her jurisprudence, will quickly become ammunition to help the candidate who nominated her and the endangered Senate Republicans who come to her defense. A measured Barrett, which she will surely be, will also undercut the argument that a proper response to her confirmation is to make the court larger.
Liberals won’t be wooed by Barrett, but her nomination reinforces the case that Trump-supporting conservatives the country over have made to conservative skeptics of Trump: It’s not about him. It’s about what he can give you, and he will give you what you want. In this case, it’s a more conservative Supreme Court.
