But why are conservatives getting on the Biden bandwagon? There are many reasons, but allow me to focus on two. First, President Trump is not a conservative, so even though he is the head of the party that claims to be conservative, there is no conservative reason to support him. This is not to say that President Trump has not done some conservative things (such as his judicial nominations and tax cuts), but his overall body of work, as well as some recent actions (such as forgiving student debt and his inability to cut spending), make it easy for a conservative in the tradition of Burke, Hume, Oakeshott, Madison, and Reagan to step away. The second reason is that while Biden will likely enact policies that conservatives will disagree with, he will be able to get the country more or less back to normal and is a centrist who won't try to make radical changes in the way Senator Bernie Sanders would have had he been nominated. And in light of this latter point, Biden's non-commitment on court-packing is troubling.
In the past, Biden has said that he is not in favor of court-packing or major changes to the judiciary; in fact just yesterday he commented that he is not in favor of the idea. So far, so good. But, when he is asked directly, he side-steps the issue or blames reporters for trying to make a hypothetical issue an issue. But the problem for Biden is that this is not a hypothetical issue if he is elected. Several prominent congressional Democrats (including Biden's running mate Senator Kamala Harris) have said they are open to the idea. As the man who claims he is the Democratic Party (if we take his comment at face value), Biden will be the one to make the decision. If he says that he will not nominate a justice unless a vacancy arises, then the debate is over. No matter what his party wants, if Biden refused to nominate an additional justice once he is sworn, the issue is dead. A president nominates and the Senate confirms, but the latter cannot happen without the former.
Court-packing is an issue for conservatives who may support Biden for at least two reasons: 1) Court-packing is a route to unchecked power and 2) It shows that Biden is not the uniter we thought he was. It is likely that if Biden wins the election the Democrats will also take the House of Representatives (which they already control) as well as the Senate. And given that the Senate (especially Mitch McConnell) has acquitted and enabled the president after he should have been removed from office, I have no problem with giving the Democrats the Senate for a time while my party gets a well-earned time out. Why? Because with a 6-3 Supreme Court, they can make change but not radical or fundamental change. If Biden were to court-pack however, there is nothing really stopping him from pushing a more liberal agenda than he is letting on. Which leads to the second point. If Biden is going to do things that are outside the norm such as packing the court, then he is not the centrist we imagined we are supporting. And if that is the case, there is no reason to support him, but there is reason to support the current president. After all, some conservatives want President Trump gone, but they want to go back to normal, not a clear break with the past. And since Biden won't play it straight, that is the gamble the conservative who is willing to support Biden is making.
If Biden does not clearly state that he will not court-pack, then conservatives should either: 1) Support President Trump or 2) vote for or write in another candidate. Conservatives have gone to bat for Biden under certain circumstances, and if he wants our vote he needs to let us know that he is what he thought he was.