Hypocrisy is the point

Senate Majority Leader and Democracy Gravedigger Mitch McConnell blocked the appointment of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. This was in the last year of Obama’s presidency. McConnell justified it with the nonsense that it wasn’t respectful of voters to allow an outgoing president to make lifetime appointments. McConnell also held open over 100 federal judge positions, which he and the nasty guy are filling with haste.

So since next year is the last in the nasty guy’s first (and hopefully only) term McConnell was asked, “Should a Supreme Court justice die next year, what will your position be on filling that spot?” He replied, “Oh, we’d fill it.” He also bragged that the most important thing he’s done is fill all those vacancies with conservative ideologues who have lifetime appointments (he’s up around 65 so far).

A lot of people are, naturally, calling McConnell a hypocrite.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville has a few things to say:

And what's important to understand is that McConnell is not merely a "hypocrite," as you will undoubtedly see him called a million times today. He is a strategic, conniving, shameless authoritarian for whom the asymmetry of the rules is the point.

That's why he's announcing it (with zero fear of consequence, I might add). He wants us to know about the double-standard. He wants to appall us with it.

It's a brazen flex.

McConnell just doesn't want to win. He wants to rub our noses in it. He wants us to know he cheated his way to victory. He wants to gloat about his domination.

He isn't confessing hypocrisy. He's doing a touchdown dance.

Commenter mcbender adds:

There's a line I come across occasionally (I can't remember who first said it) that the sort of hierarchy conservatism wants has two major groups: those the law protects but does not bind, and those the law binds but does not protect. In their minds, this is what the law is for. It's not meant to be fair, or to be taken literally, it's meant to provide excuses for the overclass to evade accountability and enact oppression, and to reinforce oppression on the underclass and ensure they remain so.

But this isn't the whole of it, nor a sufficient explanation, as a friend of mine pointed out to me recently. The other aspect is that, in order to be sure that that's their actual state of affairs under the system, they MUST behave lawlessly, and in the open. There's no other way for them to get concrete evidence of being exempt from the rules. If they cheat in secret, they could only be getting away with it through not being caught. The brazenness and hypocrisy are the point, because that's how they know they have power, and the outrage from those of us who don't believe the world should work like that only reinforces it for them. Calling McConnell a hypocrite might as well be a compliment.

I don't know if there's a change in tactics that this understanding should suggest; I haven't quite gotten that far. But it's vital to understand what they're doing.