LEFT & RIGHT WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2020

Newspaper publisher Mark Guerringue again sits in the left chair this week.

Producer question #1: Would it more politically beneficial to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice before the election, or between the election and inauguration day? Mark says the original sin was committed by Harry Reid in 2013 when, as Democrat Senate Majority Leader, he eliminated the filibuster. Then Mitch McConnell delayed Merrick Garland’s nomination in 2016, saying he wanted to wait until after the November election. He said there’s a lot of hypocrisy all around regarding supreme nominations, but when is it too much and voters remove the hypocrites? Mark brings up the Obamacare issue soon to come before the court that Amy Coney Barrett will be adjudicating — the constitutionality of Obamacare without the mandate. We discuss Chief Justice Roberts around that and other statements he’s made, like “no Obama judges or Trump judges” as if all judges are without political bias, which I consider ridiculous. I point out that conservatives often appoint justices who were conservative only to see them go over the left after serving for a time — yet there are none I can think of who have gone the other way. Mark applauds that and claims our country tilts left. I dispute that. We go into Barrett’s Catholicism and I point out that Kerry, Pelosi, Biden, and other Democrats are Catholics nominally, but don’t practice their religion. Coney Barrett does. She’s a conservative Catholic in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Democrats hate that. We go back into justices making decisions according to “original intent” and “precedent” with Mark pushing the latter. I’m an originalist who believes we stick to strict interpretations of wording. Mark goes back to Obamacare saying his business needs it or he wouldn’t be able to offer health insurance to his employees. We discuss pre-existing conditions and Medicare for all. I bring up demonstrations turning into riots across the country and cite George Soros millions electing district attorneys across the country for the past six years. They’re leftists who refuse to charge rioters in several cities, enabling anarchy to spread widely. I say it’s shaping up as the biggest issue in voters’ minds as they go to the polls. Mark believes the riots are rare and “not a big deal.” People aren’t concerned about it nationally. I offer evidence that they are and we argue about it at length. We discuss national reaction to Covid, which I contend is way overblown because it’s politicized.. Mark justifies it in various ways about which we again disagree.