I first heard Senator Merkley say this right after the election.  Dahlia Lithwick uses this language too and it’s absolutely the way to approach it.

The current Supreme Court vacancy is not Trump’s to fill. This was President Obama’s vacancy and President Obama’s nomination. Please don’t tacitly give up on it because it was stolen by unprecedented obstruction and contempt. Instead, do to them what they have done to us. Sometimes, when they go low, we need to go lower, to protect a thing of great value.

That seat took on almost apocalyptic stature for Republicans who supported their candidate if only for that one reason (and he wasn’t Hillary).  They should not profit from their actions.

I find it amazing that you could even find someone in 2016 who has been an attorney and a judge, at a level of achievement and respect sufficient to qualify for the highest court, who would look at the balance between their own personal religious value and the Constitution and make a purely religious decision on whether a woman has a right to sovereignty over her own body.  It’s rather depressing to think that even one Scalia existed, that there are more out there is crazy.  But it’s America.

Expect contempt for rational thought and deference to individual rights (unless you’re a corporation).

I am persuaded now that the only way to answer nihilism is with nihilism of our own.