The Senate Democrats have filibustered President Trump’s appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. A change of Senate rules allows a vote will come next.

The divisions in the Senate are too great for it to do its work without this kind of change.

But these things now are overshadowed by the same divisions that are in the rest of the country. The right and left see the world through different lenses. The Senate now represents the deep split in the country itself.

Democrats’ New Religion: Abortion and LGBT Rights

Part of this has to do with sex. The Democratic Party is now defined by sexual identity politics and “freedom.” During his long “introduction” of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at January’s inauguration, Democratic Senate Leader Charles Schumer managed to mention “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as if these are on par with the liberties of the First Amendment.

Democratic faith in the federal government has all the traits of religious devotion.

And the left’s attacks on Neil Gorsuch are basically: He is “anti-choice” and might vote to return marriage law to the states. Abortion and LGBT “rights”: The two key priorities of the modern Democratic Party.

And this provides Democrats with a private vocabulary, where words have special meanings:

• “Right to choose” means elective abortion.
• “Compassion” means the government takes money from you to give to somebody else.
• “Business” equals greed.
• “Extreme” for persons who believe the Constitution has a fixed meaning.
• “Outside the mainstream” for “he disagrees with me and my agenda.”
• “Anti-science” for believing unborn children are persons.

Neither side of the aisle has a great record on foreign and domestic policy. But on issues of life, marriage, religious liberty, and the role of the government and the judiciary, the gulf between them grows wider and deeper by the day. Rather than simple political differences, the left and right now disagree on human nature itself. That is bound to affect politics.

Slip in Senate Civility

The Founders wanted the Senate to be a place where serious debate about key issues took place. They believed that the “Upper Chamber” should be a bit detached from the hustle and bustle of politics. They thought it would provide a place for calm and cool debate of public issues.

Well, it’s never been like that. Some of the speeches in the Senate prior to the Civil War led to violence on the floor of the chamber itself. That chamber has been witness to chicanery and deal-making and speech after pompous speech.

The Founders wanted the Senate to be a place where serious debate about important issues took place.

Yet since the 1940s, at least, there’s been a general sense of decorum that have kept most debates calm and most Senators civil.

But civility takes practice. It means courtesy and respect in manner and expression. It means the convictions of honorable men and women are taken seriously.

Senate liberals live in a state of anger that Republicans have taken what they think belongs to them — the Senate itself. The heretics have seized the cathedral and must be thrown out at any cost.

With that mentality, rules that once protected the Senate from too much partisanship now seem old-fashioned.

Divided Senate Reflects Divided America

The spirit of good will and good faith among Senators is evaporating like dew on summer grass.

I began working in the Senate for now-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats (R-IN) in 1991. In those days, there was a comity that now seems quaint. To honor the late Paul Simon of Illinois, many Senators would sometimes wear seer-sucker suits and bow ties. Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia would send out a prayer letter for an ill Senate chaplain, Republican appointee Richard Halverson. Larger-than-life Ted Kennedy and the solemn Orin Hatch could be best friends.

Those days are gone. It’s not that Senators insult one another all the time. It’s that the spirit of good will and good faith is evaporating like dew on summer grass.

And that leads to the filibuster. The judicial filibuster is not the same as the legislative filibuster: Senators will still have the power to filibuster legislation they dislike. For how long is a different question.

So be it. In this, the Senate reflects the America that elected it — a veneer of decency and courtesy might remain. But underneath, we are divided by two contrary views of reality. And there is no quick remedy before us.