Dear America,

Once again Donald Trump has demonstrated his commitment to the dog and pony show as a political strategy.  His pre-naming reception for two candidates for the Supreme Court nomination that he had announced that he would announce yesterday evening was like a scene from "The Apprentice," both in its crassness and its potential to promote its host.  Replete with unending applause when Trump entered the room--no one seems to notice that the room is packed with family members and staff who are the only ones clapping, doing so without apparent glee I might add--it was de rigueur for our new president, who doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word, unseemly.  But that is what we can expect for the next week to four years, depending on whether the few voices being raised in the name of impeachment become a chorus or not, and besides, Trump wasn't really the issue; his nominee, Neil Gorsuch was, and not necessarily in the obvious way.

Everyone who watches Trump knows that his idée fixe is domination of his opposition.  It is a tactic that he apparently learned from his father, Fred, and from a past master of the art, Roy Cohn, who was Donald's lawyer and one of the most venomous, Machiavellian and unprincipled people ever to practice law and politics.  But there are more subtle aspects of such motivations than frivolous but expensive law suits that get dropped when exposed for what they are only after doing their financial damage to the intended victim.  One of them is the physical domination.

Trump is a fairly large man at 6' 3", albeit more like the Pillsbury Dough Boy than "Ahnold" Schwarzenegger.  In service of his self-image, you can see him posing as if he actually is imposing when he ambles John Wayne-like into the room, and in how he swaggers even when he is standing still, swaying his shoulders and cocking his stance so as to look askance at his audience.  It's all part of the attempt to cow his adversaries with feigned formidability, just like his use of the ad hominem attack and his incessant self-promotion, which he actually touted in "The Art of the Deal" as "truthful hyperbole."   But whether that is so in business or not, now, in the realm of politics he has found a place where what is euphemistically called "optics" is an accepted part of the deal.   You may have noticed that he takes every photo opportunity he can get, with many of which our media gladly oblige him, including when he surrounds himself with acolytes as he signs one executive order or another, many of which have been nothing more than displays of pseudo-power as only congress can do what he is purporting to do.  Last night, most of his optics went as planned except for the occasional stumble in his "I am a man of my word" speech, but at the end of his gala affair, a subtle but important one failed.

If you watch Trump shake hands with people, you will notice that as he does so, he pulls them toward him.  As he is tall, that act serves to impinge on the personal space of his intended victim as he towers over many of them, and his bulk connotes, at least in his mind, some kind of critical mass.  But when he shook Neil Gorsuch's hand, the intended Supreme Court Justice stood his ground, leaving Trump to tug on the good judge's hand to no effect or avail.  And as this transaction occurred, Gorsuch looked straight into Trump's eyes with a dispassionate expression as if to say, that bull s--t might work in New York real estate, but it don't mean nothin' to me.

So as to the course the Democratic Party is going to take regarding Judge Gorsuch's nomination to the highest court in the land, he is as conservative as the justice he is replacing, but not more so.  He also seems fairly bright, so he may be amenable to reasoned opposition to his point of view.  But most importantly, by consenting to his nomination, the Democrats lose nothing, and they can reserve the threat of a filibuster for the next nomination so that they can eschew the criticism that they are acting solely politically in an attempt to embarrass the Republicans and stand on principle.  Gorsuch is more like Alito than Scalia in my estimation, but he is in between, and as such, he might be susceptible to a change of heart over the years.  It has been known to happen in the last fifty years or so.  Thus, if any of you are Democratic senators, I suggest that you pick your battle...and that it be the next one.  

Your friend,

Mike