Merrick Garland and his critics

IT IS HARD to pinpoint a moment at which the Republicans abandoned democratic norms for the end-justifies-the-means power politics that connects Mitch McConnell’s Senate leadership to Donald Trump’s demagoguery. Yet Mr McConnell’s refusal in March 2016 to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, an appeals-court judge nominated by Barack Obama to the Supreme Court bench, is a top contender. Though both parties had hitherto been culpable of eroding the Senate’s traditions of compromise and restraint, Mr McConnell’s ploy raised the damage to a new level. It suggested he would press for maximum partisan advantage at every opportunity, whatever the institutional cost.