I seem to recall a time when the idea behind selecting a Supreme Court Justice was to pick someone who'd be so fair-minded that they'd rule on the merits of each argument…not merely side most of the time with the left or the right. It would be someone who'd be confirmed by a consensus of both Liberals and Conservatives, both Republicans and Democrats. In Bill Clinton's two terms, he nominated two Justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was confirmed 96-3 and Stephen Breyer, who was 87-9. Going back just a few presidents, you see quite a few who were confirmed unanimously.
I dunno what's going to happen this time but it won't be pretty.
Well, I do know we're going to hear endless quotings of Mitch McConnell's statement in 2016, "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president" and a similar one later on by Lindsey Graham. We're going to hear the "H" word — "hypocrite" — a lot. And Trump is already trying to figure out how to best exploit this for votes and/or to have a Supreme Court that will vote his way on election-related disputes and about criminal prosecutions of him and his aides and family.
The most important election of our lives just got more important.