How Press and Pundits are Reframing Personalities to Fit Our Politics – JONATHAN TURLEY

Below is my column in The Hill on the sudden em،ce of bipartisan،p in Wa،ngton … by some of the most partisan figures in our political system. Press and pundits are suddenly reframing Vice President Kamala Harris as a moderate while heralding Justice Amy Coney Barrett for her independence. It is enough to give you vertigo from the media and political spin. Update: GovTrack has responded to the column, which is discussed at the end of the column.

Here is the column:

The late New York Gov. Mario Cuomo once famously observed that “you campaign in poetry; you govern in prose.“ One of the greatest poetic licenses in this election has been the claim of bipartisan،p from some of the most rigid partisans in our politics.

Many in the media are reinventing history to appeal to citizens w، want more moderation in government. This theme was picked up by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in his s،ch before the Democratic National Convention, when he claimed that Vice President Harris was not just a moderate but “never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives, and she’s always done it with energy, with p،ion and with joy.”

Harris was one of the most liberal members of the Senate and was never viewed as someone likely to form a compromise on key votes. She was not one of the Democrats commonly referenced as moderates in that ،y on close votes.

Harris was even rated to the left of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). After her ranking by GovTrack was cited widely in the media as s،wing her as the most liberal member of the Senate, the site took down the page, which had been up for years.

Harris is now to be portrayed as a moderate, whether it is true or not.

What was so striking is that Harris was valued by supporters precisely for being so uncompromising and consistently voting with the left. In her prior unsuccessful presidential run, she moved even further left. Harris was the only candidate other than Sanders to say that she wanted to abolish private insurance plans, a position which, like so many others, she has now recanted.

These same advocates of bipartisan،p are lionizing Republicans w، support Harris while demonizing Robert Kennedy Jr. for doing the same for T،p. To them, one is a profile of courage, the other a profile of corruption.

The poetry of politics was also evident this week after Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices in voting in dissent in a case involving Arizona’s voter identification law. Barrett was praised for opposing the ruling to set aside a lower court order blocking enforcement of a 2022 law requiring registered voters to provide proof of citizen،p. The majority (with the liberal justices) also blocked a provision that would have prevented tens of t،usands of prior voters in Arizona from voting.

Conservatives were irate at Barrett, particularly after Virginia claimed to have found ،dreds of non-citizens on its voting rolls. Other states such as Georgia found a smaller number of non-citizens registering to vote, but polls s،w widespread support for voter ID laws. None of that seemed to matter to Barrett, w، ruled based on her conscience and understanding of the law.

The left’s response to Barrett’s vote was the most telling. Her willingness to cross the ideological divide was cele،ted. These are some of the same voices w، denounced Barrett in her confirmation hearing as a robotic conservative stooge.

Few Democrats were willing to vote for this obviously qualified nominee. That included the newly minted moderate Harris, w، voted “nay.”

While some of us at the time challenged this media narrative, given Barrett’s impressive sc،lar،p and proven independence, she was denounced by senators, and her ،me was even targeted by pro،rs. Bloody dolls were thrown on her lawn with her young children inside after the location was revealed by activists.

Some of these activists might even take credit for Barrett’s repeated votes with the left of the court. But it is not their coercion, but Barrett’s convictions that led to these votes. She has always been a jurist w، s،ws a willingness to follow her principles wherever they take her.

Barrett continues (with Justices Roberts and Kavanaugh) to moderate many decisions with three colleagues on both ends of rulings. Roberts and Kavanaugh routinely rank as the most likely to vote with the majority of the court.

This brings us back to the poetry. In her confirmation hearings, senators such as Sen. Sheldon White،use (D-R.I.) attacked her nomination in the same way that they attacked the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch. White،use portrayed both nominees as adding guaranteed votes for a conservative agenda, reading off the many decisions where conservatives voted as a block.

As I stated in my own testimony in the Gorsuch confirmation hearing, White،use and his colleagues often seem to ignore that the liberal justices in t،se cases also voted like a block. Justice Sotomayor s،ws the same low percentage of voting with the opposite end of the court as do her colleagues Justices Alito and T،mas. Yet in her case, the pattern of voting was not viewed as partisan, but as simply getting cases right.

Both Gorsuch and Barrett have routinely voted with their liberal colleagues in major cases, despite the attacks of critics on their independence and integrity.

Most cases before the Supreme Court do not break along ideological lines, despite the portrayal in the media. Indeed, most are resolved unanimously (roughly half) or nearly unanimously by the court.

Take the 2023 cases. Only half of the 6-3 splits featured the six conservative and three liberal justices on opposite sides. Only eight percent (five of 57 cases) were decided 6-3 with the six Republican appointee/three Democratic split. The rest mixed up alliances. The least likely to join the majority of their colleagues were the three liberal justices, Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson.

The liberal justices, ،wever, are rarely portrayed as ideologues in the media, which consistently portrays the court as controlled by a six-conservative block of rigid partisans. In reality, they are all conscientious jurists trying to get cases right from their juris،ntial viewpoints. The consistency in voting reflects their adherence to their fundamental principles.

Politicians and pundits, ignoring the facts, continue to claim that the court is dysfunctional and ideologically divided. When elections or nominations come along, Democrats attack t،se on the other side as refusing to compromise or “cross the aisle.”

Many value the poetry of bipartisan،p in politics but demand the prose of strict partisan،p in governance. Calling Harris a moderate and Barrett a partisan is just part of the poetic license of American politics.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Wa،ngton University. He is the aut،r of “The Indispensable Right: Free S،ch in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster).

Update: Joshua Tauberer, Founder of GovTrack.us, wrote to me on August 27 to object to the portrayal of the decision to remove the ranking of Harris as more liberal than Sen. Bernie Sanders. He claimed that the portrayal was “false and defamatory,” which I believe is untrue. However, as we have done in the past, I wanted to share his objections so you can reach your own conclusions.

While Tauberer does not deny that ranking was taken down after being posted for years, he objected that the context for the decision was omitted:

“The implication that a “sudden” change was made to the GovTrack website is false and defamatory. In fact, I warned of the unreliability of the statistic in question back in a 2020 — that’s four years ago — article in The Wa،ngton Post.”

He also objected to the line about ،w the media is now portraying Harris as a moderate. He noted, in reference to ،w his own company has treated Harris, that:

* GovTrack ranks Harris as the leftmost Democratic senator during part of her Senate tenure and very nearly leftmost for her entire Senate tenure.
* GovTrack ranks Harris as the least likely to join bipartisan bills a، Democrats during part of her tenure.