Please, regale us with your thoughts about how enforcing rigid ideological purity via rhetoric, protests, and primary challenges led to political irrelevance for the "mouthbreathing right."

Agreed. The nuclear option actually favors liberal policies, so McConnell is taking a big risk instituting it.

Yes. He scored garbage time points against Sessions, Trump and Cruz. Cruz didn't lose his self-satified smirk as he carried in his Starbucks (in his case, more likely spiced with ground up refugee than served by a refugee). The little old lady that got dragged out at the end probably had as much effect as Franken. I mean the committee members hardly even noticed.

If they do it now when the make-up of the court doesn't change (Scalia type) then they will have no problem doing it the next two times when the make-up of the court will be drastically changed.

You can feel free to quit being a dick. I'm not exactly staking out the most radical position in the world.

I believe it only takes one to filibuster, no? Obviously it would be a party decision, but I would think a guy like Sanders might do it on his own.

The reality here is that if the Reps don't eliminate the filibuster over this then the Court ceases to be a relevant body. One by one the judges will die or retire and it will become impossible to replace them until there's a 60 vote majority in the Senate.

We will contact those who voted to affirm and inform them we will be working to help elect somebody else in their next primary. We don't need to call them cucks, but we will tell them they are losing their job next time a vote comes

This is what the Democrats need to do right now:



You'd argue that using fear to manipulate the masses is unethical. **** that. It would be unethical to not let people know about what is inevitable if nothing is done to stop it. Using fear is justified because this is a legitimate fear not a fabricated one like the ones Trump used to get elected.

Trump will make Godwin's Law obsolete if nothing is done to obstruct him and his administration.

So 2019?

Gillibrand already said today she will filibuster.

I will be contacting her today and offering my full support for this action.

It appears to me that Senate leadership is pondering this issue and Dick Durbin not supporting a filibuster at this time indicates to me that at least some of the party sees it your way.

Gorsuch is eminently qualified to be confirmed, and is basically a replacement-level Republican nominee. My pre-inauguration attitude was "We need to be the bigger party and do the right thing and confirm future hypothetical Republican nominees, as long as they're qualified." I think that was me living in The West Wing world where a good, moral argument wins the day. I'm 100% obstructionist now.

In case you still need to see it 2 hours later:

Merkley in Oregon also said he will fillibuster. Please contact these senators and let them know you support them

I have seen a lot of talk about the nuclear option the Rs can use to confirm Gorsuch. What exactly is that referring to? The only thing i can think of is the removal of the filibuster provision. If that is true wouldnt the Dems not want to go through with it bc Trump can then just push his agenda through without obstruction? Its difficult to go nuclear on random platform promises that can be compromised between both sides. But it seems like Trump can easily justify ending filibusters if Ds are going to obstruct a standard Republican SCOTUS nominee for 4 years. In summary, our only hope is for Ds to obstruct Trump as much as possible and they are going to give that power away on an issue (albeit a very consequential one) that would make Ds look not so great.

What in Trump's actions makes you think he has any regard for the bolded?

You realize that their won't be a primary. This admin is consolidating power. It amazes how many people don't see the parallels to Russia. They seem to think that this is SOP. ITS NOT. At the moment you have the CBP ignoring a court order. Yea its only 12 days in.

Not seeing the risk. Reid pretty much said the Democrats would do this if they had the majority and in fact did it for all appointments open at the time. So if they get the majority does anyone believe it won't happen?

Did you think this through even the tiniest bit? Forcing them to go nuclear now has the same results as capitulating now and forcing them to go nuclear later, except the former doesn't involve capitulating.

I hope Dems at least get gold stars and good citizenship trophies for rewarding Republican obstruction.

Even if you think that the GOP's scorched-earth tactics are simply unacceptable, you have to believe that the Democrats need to impose consequences on the GOP for using those tactics. If you don't, why would they ever stop?

Rococo looking at that lower left square thinking that's the best outcome for person A.

If the republicans are forced to use the nuclear option now this may make it very difficult for the dems to retain enough seats in the senate two years from now. Do you think it's going to be in the best interest of this country to give the republicans total control of the Senate and House with Trump as president?

I suspect you are right. Apart from anything else, it's about picking your spots and this looks like a bad spot. They really don't need to be giving trump easy victories.

(That's based on a foreigner watching it a lot. If I'm getting the wrong impression and the dems have some chance then it's very different)