If my headline sounds a bit at odds with itself, that’s because it is. I’m basing it on two separate stories the Washington Post published in the past 24 hours. First up is this one headlined “Biden faces renewed pressure to embrace Supreme Court overhaul.” Simply put, the left is apoplectic over the court’s “radical rulings.”

After the court last Friday blocked Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt, Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) reintroduced legislation to institute 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices…

Beyer, Khanna and other Democrats argue that the mounting number of what they call radical rulings by the court, along with reports that some justices have accepted lavish trips from wealthy figures, have created a crisis of legitimacy…

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of more than 100 lawmakers, recently renewed its push to expand the court…

Citing the recent burst of conservative opinions, [Brian] Fallon said: “Progressives ought to get used to this happening every June unless we do something to systematically reform the Supreme Court.”

The story does eventually mention that there is more than one side to this story. Many on the right would argue the court was tilting heavily to the left for much of the past 50 years and what we’re seeing now is a return to the center. So it’s fair to ask: Are these recent decisions really radical?

Today, the Post published an analysis piece by Aaron Blake which makes the point that the decisions the left is upset about are actually fairly popular with most Americans.

Perhaps the court’s most significant new decision came on affirmative action. The opinion severely restricts the use of race in college admissions programs.

This would seem to be in line with the views of the American people. A Washington Post-Schar School poll late last year showed that Americans supported banning colleges and universities from considering a student’s race and ethnicity in admissions, 63 percent to 36 percent.

Similarly, the Court’s decision on whether business owners should be forced to provide services that conflict with their beliefs appears to have majority support based on recent polls:

…when Pew asked a similar question earlier this year, it showed Americans favored a business’s ability to refuse services 60 to 38 percent — a result in line with the Supreme Court’s decision.

The question of forgiving student debt is a closer one. Some polls last year found a majority supported debt forgiveness. The more recent polling was more of a toss-up.

A USA Today-Ipsos poll in April showed Americans in support, 47 to 41 percent, while an NBC News poll showed 44 percent said the plan was a bad idea, and 43 percent said it was a good idea…

Even the Fox poll that said 6 in 10 Americans liked the idea of forgiving some debt showed that Americans thought Biden had exceeded his authority, 49 to 44 percent.

In short, the decisions the left is complaining loudly about are not radical in the sense of being extreme compared to where the general public is on these issues. These are not far right decisions they are majority decisions or at worst toss-ups.

What is radical is the left’s attempt to delegitimize the court as a way for a noisy minority to regain power over social issues on a national level. It’s also a fool’s errand. The left seems to think that it can delegitimize the court now to help it regain power (by court packing or term limits). Once this scheme succeeds and the left is back in control all of the legitimacy questions will simply go away.

But that’s not how things work.

In fact, tearing down of the court’s reputation can’t be easily undone. If the left does gain control they will find people on the right are eagerly delegitimizing the court and showing no deference for its decisions. And I’m sure when that day comes, people like Brian Fallon will be shocked and outraged by it. But if you want the institutions to have legitimacy when your side of the aisle has control, you have to show some amount of deference when your side is not in control. If you use the nuclear option when your side can benefit from it, your opponents will do the same when they are in power. Hasn’t the left learned this lesson yet?