This is a useful thread from @Nate_Cohn and I would say that liberals need to conceptualize the problem as an interlocking set of failures of democratic legitimacy.

Neither George W Bush nor Trump took office with democratic legitimacy —> well, them’s the rules.

The GOP Senate majority lacks democratic legitimacy —> well, them’s the rules.

The Senate approves justices it likes but not those it doesn’t like —> well, them’s the rules.

Gerrymandering lets Republicans hold the state legislatures of Wisconsin and Michigan based on a minority of votes —> well, them’s the rules.

Lame duck state legislatures can strip power from the executive when they lose statewide —> well, them’s the rules.

This really is what the rules say!

If over the long term, the Dems and the GOP split the two-party vote 50:50 the result will be that Republicans control virtually all the political power at every level of government.

Seems bad to me.

Conversely, if Democrats win a majority in 2021 and use it to:

— End the filibuster
— Adopt DC/PR statehood
— Ban partisan gerrymandering
— Create a 17-justice court with 17-year term limits
— Expand lower courts on pace with population growth

Them’s also the rules!

Now one could say “instead of doing this, Democrats should change all their policy positions to downweight the interests and preferences of non-white peope and city-dwellers.”

But the idea of equality under the law among citizens seems worth fighting for.

It’s obviously true that equality under law is somewhat at odds with the American tradition — a tradition that on one level was founded in enslavement and white supremacy.

But as moderates and conservatives say, the American tradition also embeds powerful egalitarian ideas!

tl;dr I would not get too hung up on the specific procedural hypocrisy of the Garland Gambit, the problem is that they are able to get away with that kind of hardball because the GOP Senate majority is largely insulated from democratic control.