For fark’s sake, the Garland nomination was spiked over ideological balance on the court, not because it was an election year

One of the reasons Republicans tend to lose in public debates is that, even when they’re on the right side and doing the right thing, they don’t seem willing to defend their actions on the sheer merits. And often when this is the case it comes back to bite you later. In 2016, the nation faced a near catastrophe when Antonin Scalia died, leaving the prospect of Barack Obama appointing a liberal replacement who would shift the Supreme Court’s ideological balance to the left. Had that happened, unions could still force non-members to pay dues, and Jack Phillips would have had to bake that gay wedding cake, and pro-life pregnancy centers would be forced to give out the phone numbers of abortion clinics.