I come here to praise Harry Reid

The former Senate majority leader brought us to this moment by triggering the "nuclear option" on judicial nominees.  Hey Harry!  Aren't you worried the Republicans might gain control of the Senate and force through Supreme Court nominees?

REPORTER: “Aren’t you worried Republicans will just get rid of the filibuster on the Supreme Court anyway?”

REID: “Let ‘em do it! Why in the world we’d care? We were trying to protect everybody. I mean, if they want simple majority, fine. I mean all these threats, ‘we’re going to change the rules’ … As Senator Schumer said, what is the choice? Continue like we are or have democracy?”

And they did it!  Marc Theissen called it all the way back in 2011:

While Republicans are in a strong position to take control of the Senate, their odds of winning a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority are remote. But now, thanks to Reid, they may not need 60 votes. Reid has established that the majority can ignore the rules in order to gag the minority and declare something dilatory by simple majority vote. This is a filibuster-busting precedent that a Republican majority could use to overcome Democratic opposition on any number of issues–from taxes and spending to revising the debt-limit deal, reversing defense spending cuts and even repealing Obamacare.

In other words, trampling the rights of the minority when you are poised to become the minority isn’t particularly smart. Reid may come to regret his nuclear hypocrisy if he becomes minority leader again in 2012. Indeed, he may have just given the GOP the key to undoing the Obama agenda. That’s the problem with nuclear fallout–you never know which direction it will blow.

Followed by Jonathan Turley in 2018: "A bill comes due: Reid's folly becomes the Democratic nightmare": "The result was the final demise of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees when the Republicans took power.  The result for the Democrats is Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a 50 to 48 vote."

Let's not diminish the contribution by Chuck Schumer though:

We could put Chuck Schumer on the same pedestal. The current Senate Majority Leader led an indisputably stupid attempt to filibuster Neil Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court in 2017, which led to McConnell’s retributive rule change that used Reid’s precedent to free up Gorsuch’s confirmation vote. That led directly to the confirmations of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett too, giving the court its current 6-3 conservative lineup.

Harry Reid’s dark and partisan extremism started it all, though. Congrats to all the Senate Democrats who fell into a completely obvious and predictable trap in 2013. Well done.

Well done, indeed.