Story highlights The Republican base has long cared deeply about the makeup of the highest court in the country

For most Democrats, there is more political risk in voting for the Gorsuch nomination to proceed than blocking it

Washington (CNN) The Senate is on a collision course. Sometime in the next 48 to 72 hours, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, will move to change the rules in order to allow a simple majority vote to end debate on the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch, who will be confirmed soon after.

The use of the " nuclear option " -- first employed by then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2013 with regards to Cabinet appointees and federal judges -- is a break from the long-standing traditions of how the Senate operates. The Senate, a body that has viewed itself as above the majority-rule nature of the House, is on a very slippery slope toward becoming its little brother chamber.

That's a bad thing, broadly speaking, for democracy. But this latest showdown over a Supreme Court filibuster is a very, very good thing for the bases of both parties.

The Republican base has long cared deeply about the makeup of the highest court in the country. President Donald Trump's decision to release a list of judges he might appoint if he was elected president was the single most effective tool he deployed for rallying skeptical conservatives behind him during the campaign. The GOP base was uniquely open to the idea that, whether or not they liked Trump personally, he would put in place judges that were significantly more in line with their thinking than would Hillary Clinton.

Senate Republicans' willingness to buck the procedural roadblock caused by Democrats unwilling to support Gorsuch will be cheered by the party base. Money will be raised off of the strong stance McConnell and his Senate colleagues take against a recalcitrant group of Democrats. And, most importantly, not a single Republican up in 2018 will suffer even the slightest bit of blowback for pushing the nuclear button.

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