When it comes to the Senate clash over Coloradan Neil Gorsuch, I鈥檇 love to keep another ideological conservative off the U.S. Supreme Court. And I鈥檇 love to exact a cost for the hypocrisy of our congressional leaders. I鈥檇 love the pleasure of payback for the unprincipled Republican refusal to review President Barack Obama鈥檚 own nominee for the same vacancy last year. I鈥檇 also love to see how Donald Trump tweets his way out of another defeat.
But not this way. Not by escalating a partisan arms race that could put our lawmakers farther than ever from detente, let alone real rapprochement. As Colorado鈥檚 Sen.聽Michael Bennet said this week in outspokenly opposing a filibuster of the nomination by his fellow Democrats, it takes the Senate in 鈥渢he wrong direction.鈥�
Heaven knows the Senate has been headed the wrong way for years. Not necessarily its policies, but its procedures. Senators abide by their traditions when it suits them and adulterate them when it doesn鈥檛. They have been paralyzed by their politics. This showdown threatens to make the paralysis permanent.
Who鈥檚 going to prevent it? Not people who think like the executive director of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League in Colorado, Karen Middleton, who opposes the Gorsuch nomination and was quoted Tuesday in The Denver Post saying, 鈥淲e agree with Sen. Bennet that Washington is broken, but you do not fix it by rewarding bad behavior and further weakening the institution.鈥�
I鈥檓 on her side with women鈥檚 rights, but on this issue she鈥檚 got it wrong. The warning ought to be, you don鈥檛 repay bad behavior with more bad behavior. That just weakens the institution even further and, much worse, it weakens the country.
True, when Republicans opposed聽Obama鈥檚 Supreme Court nomination a year ago, they scaled new heights of hypocrisy. Had they shown any honor, we wouldn鈥檛 be having this conversation. But when Democrats have held the gavel, their hands haven鈥檛 been clean either. So a pox on both their houses. They are more invested in party and politics than in people and progress. More gets stopped in Congress than what gets started. It抖阴ap like the parties live on different planets. And we聽— who expect our elected officials to make and maintain an ever-better American society聽— are their victims.
Some of us are old enough to remember the clich茅 of Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neil, foes by day, then friends over bourbon and poker at night. On the calendar, it’s not all that long ago, but in today鈥檚 painfully partisan environment, it is an ancient era.
Someone has to take a stand. Someone has to point us back in that almost forgotten direction. It has often been the case that when a president proposed someone for the Supreme Court, the opposition party found the prospect philosophically unpalatable. But for a long time, that wasn鈥檛 a disqualifier. If the nominee was legally and ethically qualified, confirmation was granted.
The Republicans took the low road last year and pummeled those principles. The Democrats can take the low road now, filibustering and perpetuating the paralysis. Or they can take the high road and consider the nominee on his merits. And if the Democrats take the low road, the Republicans can stay low and 鈥済o nuclear,鈥� abolishing the filibuster and ending the debate. Or they can abide by a Senate tradition that has helped keep this country鈥檚 constitutional conflicts in check.
Yes, everything from gay rights to abortion rights to workers鈥� rights are on the line. But it seems that something of even greater import is also on the line, without which those rights may be moot: the distinction between reasonable rivalries and unappeasable enemies, the difference between governance and gridlock.
Maybe that抖阴ap what Bennet meant when he said, 鈥淲e need to take the long view.鈥� It抖阴ap not about ideology, it抖阴ap not about payback, it抖阴ap not about Trump. And it isn鈥檛 about the United States Senate. It抖阴ap about the United States itself.
Greg Dobbs of Evergreen is an author, public speaker, and former foreign correspondent for ABC News.
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