The Garland stonewall was merely the icing on the obstruction cake for Republicans during the Obama administration. For the lion’s share of eight years — all of which Biden had a front-row seat for as the man presiding over the Senate — they blocked pretty much everything Obama put forward. The result was they turned a brief 60-seat, filibuster-proof Democratic majority into an eight-seat Republican majority, and then they won the presidency.

And the makeup of our country drives home the continued incentive Republicans have to throw up another stonewall against the next Democratic president, whether Biden or someone else. While our country is about evenly divided overall when it comes to the numbers of reliable Democratic voters and reliable Republican voters, there are more red states than blue states. Trump won 30 of 50 states in 2016, meaning 60 senators hail from states he won…

So whatever desire Republicans might have to work with a President Biden, they will also have that nagging sense that it’s counterproductive for their party’s future. It sounds cynical to talk about these things in such crass political terms, but that’s the calculation Republicans have made and are continuing to make under Trump.