The November 3 episode of Netflix’s Chelsea, titled “Gwen We Meet Again,” included a segment on the judicial system and "voter suppression." Jason Kander, President of Let America Vote, and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget McCormack were the guests Chelsea Handler tasked with educating America (and herself).
After Chelsea admits her ignorance (again) about America by saying, “I have a really hard time understanding the judiciary system,” Justice McCormack explains the state and federal court systems. McCormack, it should be noted, is the sister of Handler’s best friend and occasional show guest, the liberal Mary McCormack. Thankfully, she remains professional throughout this segment as she stresses that judges are to be non-partisan in their work. That’s difficult for most of us to believe in practice, but at least she says the words.
Kander, however, pipes up with all the standard liberal talking points. He is happy to agree when Handler says, “Voter fraud doesn’t exist. Trump made it up.” Really? I have supported a group called True the Vote, founded in my city, for many years. This group certainly pre-dates Trump’s political campaign (founded in 2009) and their focus is precisely on voter fraud. You may have heard of the legal battles instigated by the Obama administration’s I.R.S. against the group’s founder, Catherine Engelbrecht. Her battle continues to this day.
Despite the articles written about voter fraud cases, as recently as the past few days, Kander lobs one Democratic talking point after another. “The Republican Party has tried to pretend there’s a difference between the parties, that one party believes voting should be harder. That’s not it. The Republican wants to make it harder for folks to vote if they’re less likely to vote Republican.” He continues, “They go out and tell everybody there’s an epidemic of voter fraud when you’re more likely to be struck by lightning as an American than you are to commit voter impersonation fraud. They do it to undermine faith in democracy so that they can pass laws that make it harder to vote. It’s like the centerpiece of Donald Trump’s reelection strategy.” Well, that’s quite a stretch, isn’t it?
Then, of course, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is brought into the mix. Kander says, “But when you have Jeff Sessions in charge of DOJ and then you have Donald Trump picking the judges, what happens is now you can’t just have a legal argument, you also have to have an argument in the court of public opinion.” He claims Sessions has “the DOJ against voting rights” and “being on the side of making it harder to vote.”
Fortunately, Justice McCormack pushes back on his prattling. She says, “It should not matter who appoints the judges. I want you to be optimistic.” She gives an example of a new justice now her colleague on Michigan’s Supreme Court. The woman is a Trump appointee and she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a bipartisan vote. “She’ll be excellent,” McCormack says.
The Justice wraps up the discussion aptly, I thought. She says, “I believe that when the founders set up this, you know, lovely system in our federal government, they made that branch different from the others, not subject to partisan elections, for a reason.” She calls it the “non-political” branch of government. Hey, it was nice to have an adult in one of Chelsea Handler’s discussions to counter the juvenile partisanship of most liberals.
Handler often admits her ignorance of basic American history and the various parts of our government. This show is no different. Sadly, I do not have the impression that she ever really learns anything. Maybe I’ll take the Justice’s advice and “remain optimistic.”
