Why wasn’t this video made 10 years ago? I cannot believe how much clarity this packs into such a short video.
I’m amazed more isn’t made of Obama’s penchant for “compromise”; that is, ceding the GOP everything they can grab with both hands. Part of the cause for the misguided chant by disaffected Democrats that “Both parties are the same!” is because of Obama’s inability to fight when the Republicans knocked him down in the schoolyard and took his candy.
It took Harry Reid 4 years to implement the “partial nuclear” option in the Senate (using a simple majority instead of 60 to go around the obstructionist Republican minority)-- just in time for the Senate to flip Republican in 2015 (slowing nominations to a crawl), and allowing Trump/McConnell in 2017 to go “full” nuclear to nominate SCOTUS and judges for those “Obama” vacancies as fast as they can. (One never got the feeling Obama pressured Reid over this; Reid just took his time, kept trying to observe “Senatorial comity” (that is, “going high”), until his actions were almost irrelevant.)
Sad Note: If Pusillanimous Harry Reid had used the nuclear option in 2009, we could have had much more progressive Obamacare, but since we did need all 60 Dem Senators, we have this much more arcane system, one that isn’t as good for Americans, one that gives Republicans more ammunition for saying it should be abolished.
what happens next?
Well, at the very least, if Democrats ever get the Senate during a Republican administration:
-
confirm no more SCOTUS judges for as long as it takes to get Democratic administration (or for the Senate to flip back to Republicans, obviously). Then, keep up the tactic until we get back to “par.” (But perhaps by then, it will be institutionalized that “SCOTUS judges are only nominated if the POTUS is of the same party as the Senate.” I mean, even if Democrats get back to “par” they would have to keep going, knowing that if they relented, the GOP will just keep pulling Garlands to one-up what “those bad Democrats” did.
-
perhaps cease confirming judges who are in any way Conservative (which is effectively “cease confirming all judges,” since Trump/McConnell would never compromise, never nominate moderate judges, and indeed Trump would relish the conflict).
