BREAKING: Gorsuch Fails (When You Can’t Win Fair And Square, Just Change The Rules)

The breaking news is that Republicans have failed to get enough votes to end cloture, and to force a vote on Gorsuch, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

Under the constitution, the president can nominate a member to the Supreme Court, and the Senate is tasked with approving those picks. In this case, by a vote of 55 to 44, the Senate has functionally rejected his pick.

This is not unheard of. President Bush was forced to withdraw one of his picks (Harriet Myers) and other presidents prior to that had nominees who were not confirmed by the Senate.

This is how our system works– it’s called checks and balances; no one arm of government has all the power.

Republicans should face it: Trump’s first pick failed. The way the system works is that he should now put forward a new nominee with more bipartisan appeal, seeking approval of the Senate.

But of course, that’s not what they’re going to do.

Republicans have now said they’ll use a “nuclear” option and permanently change the rules of the game in order to get Gorsuch confirmed to the court. The reality is that Republicans have enough numbers to do exactly that– they’ll change the rules and Gorsuch will before long, be on the court for life.

Why? Because clearly they don’t care about the will of the people.

The American people elected Barack Obama to 8 years, including the right to pick nominees to the court for those full 8 years. Yet, when his final pick came, Republicans refused the will of the people.

Today, the people have spoken once again. The Senate is comprised of 100 members from across the country who serve as representatives of the people in their states. Those people, via their elected representation in the Senate, rejected Gorsuch.

It’s fair. It’s how the system works regardless of who is in power.

And yet, Republicans have once again demonstrated they don’t care about the will of the people– they care about power. Instead of honoring the people they represent, they will now change the rules of the game until they have the votes to win.

Because that’s how today’s Republican party works– it’s not power to the people, but power over the people.