Since their arrival on the American political scene in the eighties and nineties, Green activists and voters have been tagged by Democrats as spoilers and reckless idealists. In each and every election in which a Green has run, Democrats warned that the interloper would throw the election to the Republican candidate. The barrage was heaviest in 2000 when Democrats falsely claimed Ralph Nader caused Al Gore to lose to George W. Bush.
When all else fails to convince a Green to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate, Democrats deploy their nuclear option: the composition of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance. “You wouldn’t want fill-in-the-blank to make an appointment, would you?” No, of course not, replies the hapless Green. This is a crafty argument that pushed no small number of fence sitters over to the donkey side (not including yours truly).
Barack Obama now appears poised to destroy the argument once and for all. Joe Biden floated the first trial balloon last week in a Minnesota Public Radio interview:
In order to get this done, the president is not going to be able to go out — nor would it be his instinct, anyway — to pick the most liberal jurist in the nation and put them on the court. There are plenty of judges (who) are on high courts already who have had unanimous support of the Republicans.