My initial reactions to Alito are very. very bad. Some of my colleagues are more sanguine, but this truly does seem like the nominee we were all fearing. Alito is the reason I wanted to confirm Miers. We can argue back-and-forth over how much power the Supreme Court actually wields, but whether you believe them the most powerful branch or consigned to the margins, you still don't want them ruling the wrong way. This is a guy, then, who's fundamentally opposed to most everything I believe in, who advocates positions that I judge insane and strikes down laws (like the Family and Medical Leave Act) that're the bare minimum of what society should promise its citizens.
The Supreme Court is a symbolic institution. And the visions pursued by those perched there matter. Alito's vision of America is a dark place, and Democrats should be sure that voters know it. We may not be able to stop this nominee, but there are other ways to win the fight. Alito may prove more useful if rammed onto the Court atop voter objections. If we can win the debate about his ideology and force Republicans to rally round and confirm an unpopular nominee, he may prove more troublesome for them in success than failure. For decades now, Democrats have been losing the argument on Roe, getting tooled on the desirability of regulations, and being generally smoked on judicial issues because winning in the Courts had allowed us freedom to indulge losses in the public arena. Alito, if played right, can change that. The media attention will be there, the paper trail is there, and the stories of women with abusive husbands and workers who needed time off for medical treatment abound. This isn't about Alito, it's about competing visions for the country.
