They said it couldn't be done

Georgetown Prep Moot Court squad.

Yeah, Jonah. Give it up for Mitch, who had faith that he could defeat democracy when nobody thought it was possible! https://t.co/DaXVgystaT

— YasGHOUL's Farm (@Yastreblyansky) October 6, 2018

It's amazing when you think about it. Back in February of 2016, when old Antonin Scalia's heart choked on its choler and he died, McConnell's reaction, an hour after news of the death came out, seemed whimsical:

The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.

I mean, also without legal foundation, deeply irresponsible, and remarkably ruthless in the wielding of a power to which he had no constitutional entitlement, but also just silly and pointless, as the presidential campaign began to warm up, with the best prepared candidate in history on one side and an unspeakably ridiculous carful of circus clowns on the other.

What could he think he was accomplishing? Just putting the task off for Hillary, whose Supreme Court nomination less than a year away would likely be less friendly to conservatives than Obama's. Maybe she'd just go ahead and name Obama!

But McConnell held firm (and didn't go as far as Cruz and McCain, who said if Clinton won they'd refuse to ever confirm a justice to replace Scalia). And with the help of Vladimir Putin and Alexander Nix a president was put into office representing a reactionary minority, and a reactionary minority reshaped the Supreme Court in its own narrow and selfish image (I can't get over that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh both went to the same repulsive Slytherin prep school, or that the new court will still have not just five reliable conservatives, but all of them once again conservative Catholics, with all the narrowness and nasty-mindedness that implies). Sheer improbability certainly played an essential role in this, but McConnell really did do something.