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Neil Gorsuch's First Confirmation Misstep

February 3, 2017

As someone who enjoys a good, snarky high school student—as someone who vocally contemplated the need for a "Pessimists Club" after learning that the "Optimists Club" was, stupidly, a thing that existed and that people belonged to in my hallowed public high halls—I was excited to learn that President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, had founded a "Fascism Forever Club" at his tony Georgetown prep school.

Alas, this little tidbit—one gleefully shared by folks who thought that they had discovered the silver kryptonite bullet of destiny needed to take down the eminently qualified and totally reasonable Gorsuch—was, sadly, yet another bit of fake news. Here's America Magazine with the explainer:

When it came time to write his senior biography for the yearbook, he would make light of the divide between his conservative political beliefs and those of the more liberal faculty and students.

He wrote that he founded and led the "Fascism Forever Club," though those with knowledge of the school back in the 1980s say there was no such club. The mention of it in the yearbook was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to poke fun at liberal peers who teased him about his fierce conservatism.

Now, we all know just how much the left hates fascism, which is why such a large contingent of it has not-so-tacitly endorsed violence by black-clad thugs looking to silence a gay Jew with political thoughts they deem to be heretical. This is why, frankly, I am simply appalled that Gorsuch did not have the wherewithal or the sticktoitiveness to actually found Fascists Forever. What's the point of a solid troll if you don't follow through to make the punchline true? Do we really want someone who can half-ass a joke like this writing opinions on the seat vacated by Antonin Scalia?

So yeah, I have to say that I'm really quite terribly disappointed in Neil Gorsuch. One only hopes that the other silver kryptonite bullet of destiny in The Resistance's quiver—you know, the snarky Kissinger quote in his college yearbook—is enough to end his nomination. Because, as we all know, when your most damning arguments against a Supreme Court nominee involve things in yearbooks from high school and college, well, he deserves to be shot down at his confirmation hearings 100-0.

That's in the Federalist Papers. Educate yourself.

Published under: Neil Gorsuch