The radical conservative Republicans, by changing the Senate rules in various committees to allow the rubber-stamp approval of Trump's various unqualified cabinet nominees, have reduced this government to a state of "rump government", that is, just a shadow of what it was once upon a time.
The American Experiment, a government of checks and balances, is in imminent danger of failing. When political norms are ignored, such as the Senate refusing to act on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, then the notion of Constitutional fealty is gone. There can be no loyal opposition when the majority rules with no regard for anything less than ideological conformity.
Now, Senate Republicans threaten a "nuclear option", encouraged by Trump himself, to jam through a Supreme Court nominee and remove the prospect of an opposing filibuster. It may be the Senate's prerogative to set its own rules of order but without any respect for tradition and precedent, there will be no longer any place for the separation of powers into co-equal branches of government. All power will be consolidated by the executive.
Never before have we seen a President rule by edict the way Trump has begun his presidency. It is up to Congress and the Supreme Court to reign him in, and the sooner the better. The longer Trump is allowed to continue on his reckless and ruinous path, the less chance that this country will survive.
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