Do it now!

I'm not going to sugar coat this, Ruth Bader Gindsberg's seat on the Supreme Court should be filled on by a president Trump appointee ASAP. By ASAP I mean before the election, or at worst, in the lame duck session after the election.

There is zero reason to delay this, and I don't expect the president, nor the senate Republicans will do so.  Of course there may be some recalcitrant Republicans who are either in a precarious re-election battle (Susan Collins), wish-washy (Lisa Murkowski) or just plain spiteful (Mitt Romney) who might not vote to nominate a Trump appointee if it happens before the election.  But those are not show-stoppers.  The Republicans have 5 seats in the Senate and if they lose all three of those votes, the deciding vote is cast by VP Pence, so Trump's nominee will be confirmed.

There are many reasons not to delay:

• it's seen as decisive action by Republicans, delivering on one of the most important issues for conservative voters.
• there's no guarantee Republicans will be able to pass a Trump appointee after the election if either Trump loses the election or Republicans lose control of the senate in November
• most importantly, there is no reason to care if the left sees Republicans as holding a double standard after Mitch McConnell refused to hold hearings on president Obama's nominee Merrick Garland when Obama had less than a year left in his term because Democrats would have no compunction about doing it if the roles were reverse.  We must not be held to the standards they want  because Republicans are in power and avoiding the use of that power to achieve conservative goals ensures that they will never be achieved.

Don't sweat the risks of this.  Yes, there are downsides like firing up the Democrat base, but they are pretty fired up already.  Fire up our base by showing them results.

While you are at it, replace the role of the justice you are nominating with another conservative justice at the same time.  Do it.  Do it now!