Regarding the Nov. 21 news article “Final, faint hope to force vote on Garland dashed”:

It is manifestly clear that Senate Republicans’ refusal to take up President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court has further inflamed partisan passions in our beloved country. The big question is how Democrats should respond when Republicans hold the Senate and the White House and can presumably appoint anyone they like to fill the vacant seat.

In this case, it is instructive to remember first lady Michelle Obama’s words: “When they go low, we go high.” Following this advice, Democrats could take a principled position on Supreme Court nominations under a President Donald Trump. They should offer that either hearings are held and an up-or-down vote taken on the Garland nomination in the lame-duck session or Democrats will filibuster all future nominees to the court until after the next presidential election. Several Republican senators were threatening to filibuster a President Hillary Clinton’s appointments, so Democrats could use their own words against them to justify their action.

Hearings and a vote on Mr. Garland would offer our country an opportunity to see that democratic traditions and conventions honed over 200 years of hard-fought battles will not be left in the dustbin of history and that our public officials are, despite all evidence to the contrary, capable of living up to our best expectations of them.

Gary Rucinski, Newton, Mass.