If we put theocrats in charge, we deserve what we get
by David Atkins
There has been a lot of hand wringing today from the usual TipnRonnie centrists over the long-awaited elimination of the filibuster for executive nominees today. David Frum serves as a good example of the genre:
President Scott Walker will thank Sen Harry Reid for today’s work
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) November 21, 2013
Others have been warning of future justices Todd Akin and Sharron Angle.
It would have been nice, in theory, to preserve the filibuster for the most egregious nominees. But the outlandish extremism and routine use of the filibuster to block the President from sending any nominees at all to the D.C. circuit means that of the two choices, eliminating the filibuster entirely in these cases was the better of the two options.
The broader point, however is this: if the American people see fit to put theocrats in charge of the White House and Senate, then the American people deserve to get the government they elected. We’re a single nation, and both sides need to abide by the dictates of our democracy.
If we really are at a point in history where each side is unified in confirming its own president’s choices, and each side believes that confirming justices picked the other side’s President will lead to a hellish dystopian nightmare, then perhaps it would be best for everyone not to share the same democracy and to each go our separate ways. A nation divided against itself cannot stand for long. But as long as we do, both sides need to abide by the government a majority of our citizens have chosen to elect.
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