If you're urging Senate Rs to fill RGB's seat before the election, if you want that one last bag of dough from the bank heist before moving on to discussing the seriousness of institutional norms, then I really don't care about what your opinion on Court expansion is.

And there's no polite way to put this, but you're delusional. Seating Barrett under these circumstances will destroy the legitimacy of the Court in the eyes of a majority of the country. It doesn't matter if you, personally, can rationalize it. That's not the test.

Let's say you convince enough people to split their tickets so that Rs retain the Senate this year. What happens next? Is the plan for the Ds never to retake the Senate? This is not something Ds will let go of because you deprived them of good choices at this point.

What do you think voter reaction is gonna be to a 5-4 majority striking down every meaningful bill Ds pass? What do you think voter reaction will be when a 5-4 majority reaches back and starts striking down laws that have been on the books for 80-100 years?

And this is why the legitimacy of the Court in the eyes of a majority of the voters matters. Because while right-wing media will perfectly happy to rationalize those decisions as fidelity to the Constitution, or some such nonsense, no one else is going to see it that way.