It Came to This

So today the Senate voted to limit filibusters for most presidential nominees for cabinet positions and judicial openings. This move is unprecedented, unfortunate, and entirely necessary.

In theory, I hate the idea of taking power from the minority party, but in theory, the minority party lends a hand in governing and proposes alternative ideas to counter the majority party with the end result being policy crafted out of compromise.

In reality, limiting Republicans' ability to be an obstacle to governance is a good thing, as they have abdicated all responsibility for helping govern our country.

I have no doubt that American democracy will rebound from the debacles of the past few years. As the world changes and our country with it, we will naturally undergo periods of extreme and intense debate about important issues. This is the democratic process at its ugliest best: the competition of ideas in the public discourse.

If that is what were happening now, I'd embrace it, but alas, while both sides are long on talk and short on ideas, the Republican party is more of a car stalled on the railroad of progress than anything else. As I've pointed out before, their mantra of "repeal and replace" Obamacare long ago became simply repeal because they have no ideas for what to replace it with. False equivalence has been given time and time again to their views on this topic and others: the administration won't negotiate on Obamacare...well no, they won't, that's because it is a law passed by Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court. When Obama solicited Republicans for ideas on healthcare reform back in early 2010 they came to the table with the idea of limiting malpractice and that was it. Now they are waging a fierce battle to undo a law that may very well be productive without any ideas about how to address the problem that law was designed to solve.

Meanwhile, there are three empty seats on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit - three empty seats, not one! - and every time Obama has nominated a judge to fill one of those vacancies, Republicans have filibustered the candidate, stating publicly that they will not allow the president to fill any seats in that court. So cases are backlogged because Republicans - they who worship at the alter of the Constitution - are denying the president his constitutional power to appoint judges.

The minority party is important because we must be a country of competing ideas if we are to better ourselves and our world, and we must respect the opinions of those who truly seek to better our nation even when they do not represent the majority point of view. But the minority party has ceased to offer competing ideas and serves only as a group of people wreaking havoc on the country by saying no to everything, shutting down the government, and bringing the nation to the brink of defaulting on our debt. This isn't mature, this isn't governance; we could pluck chimpanzees from the nation's zoos and get better results.

I fear, of course, that in the future this change will hurt Democrats, but in the future is bleak enough as it is due to Republicans failure to be responsible partners in governance. That the court is backed up because Republicans are denying the president the power to appoint judges is of course ironic and hypocritical given their professed love for a document they clearly haven't bothered to read, but more importantly it's bad for America.

And so it has come to this. A decision that sucks, but is probably necessary for the good of the country. Yes, the political pendulum swings, and it's not impossible that this comes back to haunt Democrats, but it's also possible it doesn't given that the Republican party is so fractured and can't appeal to anyone except older, white Americans. Either way the country needs to function, and if the immature and vacuous Republicans don't want to participate in governing then it's best for them to be removed as obstacles.

I wish it hadn't happened, I more so wish that it hand't been necessary, and I most of all wish that the Republican party will wake up and return to respectability by finding a way to make America better. But those are wishes, and it doesn't seem as if they will be granted anytime soon. Three unfilled vacancies on the nation's highest appeals court isn't the way to run a country or score political points. You get those by leading. Republicans ought to give that a shot.