Democrats are threatening a litany of structural changes if Republicans move forward with confirming someone to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Maybe instead, they should be reflecting on the mistakes that put them in the position in which they find themselves today.
In 2005, Harry Reid said that ending the filibuster on presidential nominations would “violate over 200 years of Senate tradition and impair the ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together on issues of real concern to the American people.” Eight years later, Reid was the one who did exactly that, ending the filibuster. He even held a victory party with liberal activists to celebrate it.
Republicans warned that it was a mistake and that Democrats would regret it when they were back in the minority. Less than one year later, Republicans dominated the 2014 midterms, and they used their mandate as an opposition majority to uphold over 100 years of precedent in blocking President Obama’s nominations — including a Supreme Court nomination. Even then, Reid was anticipating Democrats would extend the destruction of the filibuster if Republicans blocked Hillary Clinton’s nominees, and vice presidential hopeful Tim Kaine explicitly promised to abolish the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees on the eve of the 2016 election, expecting Clinton to win and Democrats to take the Senate.
Then Hillary Clinton lost, and Democrats failed to retake the Senate. Democrats signaled that they would oppose whomever President Trump nominated, and Mitch McConnell responded by eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. Neil Gorsuch was confirmed shortly afterward, with 54 votes.
Democrats were struck again in 2018, again promising to oppose whomever President Trump nominated and now powerless to use any Senate procedure to prevent confirmation. They then resorted to smearing Brett Kavanaugh as a rapist, with no evidence whatsoever, hoping they could rely on media pressure to force Republicans to back down before the 2018 midterms. Instead, Kavanaugh was confirmed in a 50-48 vote, and Republicans gained two Senate seats in the midterms a few months later.
For the third time, Democrats are facing a Supreme Court nomination that they can’t stop. And for the third time, Democrats think they can take back control of the Senate. So, while Republicans control what happens to this latest Supreme Court vacancy, Democrats are threatening to further destroy our institutions and political norms. They want to pack the Supreme Court, permanently end the Senate filibuster, and gift themselves two more senators by granting statehood to Washington D.C.
Democrats are once again making the mistake of thinking that they will be in the majority forever — a peculiar assumption, given that they aren’t even in the majority now. Democrats escalated nomination battles repeatedly, with Robert Bork in 1987, Miguel Estrada in the early 2000s, and then with Harry Reid’s gambit in 2013. These repeated escalations have put Democrats in the position they find themselves in now. They should reconsider their talk of escalating things any further.
