The Brett Kavanaugh nomination serves as a useful reminder of why about one-third of the US electorate are firm Trump supporters. While Democrats declare war in the Senate, Republicans are lining up to buy Kavanaugh’s accuser plane tickets. If Trump were chairman of the Judiciary Committee, do you think he’d respond to waking up with a horse’s head in his lap by asking Ms. Ford if she preferred a window or aisle? Of course not. He may lose an eye in the confrontation but you can be sure he’d emerge with Dianne Feinstein’s bloody ear clenched between his teeth.

Much has been said about the damage done to the institution by the Democrats’ petulance while ignoring the institutional damage done by Republicans in humoring them. “But the optics!” shout Republican pollsters. Whenever I hear the “optics” argument I can’t help but notice that it invariably refers to how things might likely appear to the Democrats’ base. To an extent, this makes sense as in lieu of workable ideas, “optics” is all the Democrats’ base has. But what about the Republican base? Isn’t abandoning fundamental principles of the Constitution also a “bad look?”