Democrats Must Filibuster Neil Gorsuch

There's a new logic floating around- that Democrats shouldn't waste their ammo fighting against Donald Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. This is a fool's logic, but it's begun to float as a trial balloon, mostly because the Hill lacks good political strategists, particularly in the leadership offices right now. Not only does this plan make no sense, it's a good way to insure this country remains run by Republicans for a generation to come.

Let's start with the obvious- Gorsuch is a younger Scalia. Scalia died under President Obama's tenure, and Republicans simply refused to give Merrick Garland a hearing. They ran out the clock, and now assume the Democrats will not play as rough with them as they did with us. If they are right, that will be the lesson of this fight, and Republican obstruction from the Obama years will be seen as a winner. They paid no political price for their behavior, and now they'd know they can push around Chuck Schumer as Democratic leader, any time they need. The message of capitulation is damning, for a generation.

Then there is the ridiculousness of the Democratic logic in this- they believe the Republicans might invoke the "nuclear option" and end the filibuster in the U.S. Senate if they filibuster now, so they shouldn't filibuster now, so they can filibuster later. Any fool would realize of course that if the GOP is going to end the filibuster over a Supreme Court nominee, they will do it this time or next time, or whenever we decide to fight them. If the GOP is going to deny us one of the main tools of their obstruction against President Obama, then they are going to do it. You don't not fight because you think maybe they'll be nicer next time.

I'll go on the record now and say that Gorsuch will probably reach the Supreme Court either way, but that shouldn't dictate Democratic strategy. The Democrats absolutely need to show some backbone, and fight against the nomination that we should have been able to fill last year. The Democratic Senators should want to fight for this, because it's the only way they are actually relevant in this Congress. The Democratic base though, the people who elected those Senators, is absolutely demanding it.

All of this leads me to the last, and most important point- it's good politics to fight this pick. The Democrats absolutely have to win in the 2018 mid-terms, or face a growing perception of not being able to. Giving in to Gorsuch does nothing to help them do that. It will leave their base voters despondent or disinterested, take your pick. It will allow Donald Trump a major victory to trumpet to his base. It of course will allow a more conservative court to move election law further to the right. It will make the urgency of electing a Democratic Senate far less- since they won't fight for anything anyway.

There is no political price to obstruction. Mitch McConnell can thank himself for that. He managed to obstruct President Obama in unprecedented ways, a President who's approval was over 50%, and ended up rewarded with a unified Republican Government. If the presumption of the Democrats in the Senate is that Gorsuch will end up on the bench, and the GOP will kill the filibuster whenever they attempt to finally use it, then the correct political read is to make the GOP kill the filibuster to get their obvious, presumptive judge. Extract a price for this thing that they are going to get anyway. Further the Democratic narrative, which is that Trump and the Republicans are acting like tyrants, and forcing their will on a country that didn't really vote for him. If you're not going to win anyway (which by the way, I am not certain of), then at least get a scalp for showing up. To simply let Gorsuch go through on a party line vote would trigger a revolt in the party, and kill the energy that is blossoming in the streets of America. There's no point to that.