It’s entirely possible that Donald Trump would not have been elected in 2016 had he not decided to publish a list of conservative judges he would nominate if elected and had Mitch McConnell not decided to keep Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat open. Those two decisions pushed conservative voters, who otherwise did not like Trump, to pull the lever for him. But Roe’s impact goes much deeper than recent history. It’s impossible to overstate how it has affected the last (nearly) five decades of American politics. Roe basically short-circuited arguments being hashed out by legislatures that might have led to some consensus or provided some sense of closure. In most cases, when the court rules against public opinion, the public eventually comes around and agrees with the court. That hasn’t happened with Roe, as is evidenced by the ugly fights over confirming judges like Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh. Many other nominees were less famously raked over the coals because of Roe. And let’s be honest, those fights were really just surrogate skirmishes when compared with the one that could be coming next summer. Speaking of Thomas and Kavanaugh, think of the optics; many progressives associate these men with the sexual misconduct allegations levied against them. In the eyes of some, that will only make this decision, should it come, more egregious. You just know that Donald Trump would poison the well further by claiming credit for any such ruling, by virtue of his three SCOTUS picks. What is more, Mitch McConnell’s decision not to even allow a hearing for Merrick Garland is still recent enough to sting.