Cesspool of partisan rancor

Read this argument from a scholar at AEI as to why the nuclear option is a terrible idea. Then read it again. And again. Memorize it. Print it out. Hand it out to every conservative you know. The piece makes very clear what is at stake here if the nuclear option is exercised: the demise of participatory democracy and the rise of plebiscitary democracy. Sounds dry, but basically, if Republicans crush the filibuster option, they will setting the precedent for a system in which the majority whim always rules and minority concerns and/or rational debate over alternatives gets short shrift. In other words, just like Orenstein notes, the Senate will become just another monkey house, replete with screaching, slavering, shit-slinging simians like our current House members.