Chicken Little

Get ready for it, 'cause its coming. The Chicken Little strategy has been employed by Democrats and their trained hamsters in the media to sully the reputation, and in some cases defeat, any Supreme Court nominee of a Republican president. Sure, the GOP has also done this with Dem nominees, but never with the viciousness and personal attacks that we see coming from the Left. For example, after a thorough vetting, recently appointed liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by a bipartisan 68–31 vote in the Senate, with 23 percent of GOP members joining Dems in her confirmation. Yet, a few years later, only 9 percent of Democratic Senators joined the GOP in voting for Neil Gorsuch, a nominee clearly as qualified as Sotomayor.

In essence, the Chicken Little strategy gins up every boogieman that will energize the Democratic base and might cause hesitation among the general public. The editors of the Wall Street Journal comment:

... Democrats are already predicting the demise of abortion rights, the end of gay marriage, and no doubt we’ll be hearing about the revival of Dred Scott before the confirmation hearings on Justice Kennedy’s replacement are over.

These claims have been made repeatedly over the years and yet, abortion rights and other social issues have not been threatened in any meaningful way. In fact, with a conservative majority on the court, rights associated with social issues have expanded (e.g., Federal recognition of gay marriage occurred under a conservative majority court). The United States Constitution protects the rights of all people, and justices who interpret it strictly are bound to protect those rights ... and have done so.

Yet examples of the Chicken Little strategy abound. When Robert Bork was nominated (and ultimately defeated), the Chicken Little strategy was applied within hours. The Schmoop Blog summarizes the history of the most controversial SCOTUS nominees in the Modern era and reports:

Within an hour of the announcement, Ted Kennedy went on television to accuse Bork of envisioning an America “in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids.”

Believe it or not, the process and rhetoric only went downhill from there.

One thing is certain—Trump Derangement Syndrome will amplify the Chicken Little strategy. No matter who Trump nominates, we'll be told that the sky is falling. The nominee will be vilified as "an extremist," and using the tortured logic of the Left, as a "racist," a "misogynist" and oh, yeah ... if the nominee happens to be a caucasian male, as a dangerous continuation of our patriarchal society.

We've seen this strategy before and undoubtedly, we'll see it again over the coming months.

"The sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling" ... except it never does.

UPDATE:
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Gosh, as predicted, it sure didn't take long. This, before Trump has even picked a SCOTUS nominee:

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said, "Any one of President Trump's list of proposed SCOTUS justices would overturn Roe v. Wade and threaten our fundamental rights. I'll fight to make sure there are no hearings to replace Justice Kennedy until after the election. This is our democracy. Let’s fight like it."

Not to be outdone, Rep. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said: “We’re looking at a destruction of the Constitution of the United States as far as I can tell based on all the folks he’s been appointing thus far for lifetime appointments ... He’s been appointing ideologues, he’s been appointing people who have refused to agree that Brown v. Board of Education is settled law.”

Hmmm. The "Destruction of the Constitution of the United States!!!!" The sky is falling. Chicken Little in action.