It would be easier to claim the United States was still a functional democracy if every last sodding branch of government were not a subsidiary of Some Filthy Rich Bastard, Inc. Oh, look—Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court slot Mitch McConnell illegitimately reserved was groomed for his career by one of the richest people in America: Philip Anschutz.
As a lawyer at a Washington law firm in the early 2000s, Judge Gorsuch represented Mr. Anschutz, his companies and lower-ranking business executives as an outside counsel. In 2006, Mr. Anschutz successfully lobbied Colorado’s lone Republican senator and the Bush administration to nominate Judge Gorsuch to the federal appeals court. And since joining the court, Judge Gorsuch has been a semiregular speaker at the mogul’s annual dove-hunting retreats for the wealthy and politically prominent at his 60-square-mile Eagles Nest Ranch.
This is what they don't tell you in school, kids. Work hard, take odd jobs to put yourself through school, become a successful whatever-you-want-to-be, and you'll still be passed over your whole life in favor of some guy who knows somebody who's filthy rich and can call in a few favors.
Relax, though. It's not as if Gorsuch is in the man's pocket. They just happen to hang out in the same crowd. On the same property. In the same house. That they built together for funsies.
But he has connections with others who work with the Colorado billionaire. For nearly a dozen years, Judge Gorsuch has been partners in a limited-liability company with two of Mr. Anschutz’s top lieutenants. Together, they own a 40-acre property on the Colorado River in the mountains northwest of Denver, where they built a vacation home together.
Outstanding, just outstanding.
Anyway, this is how the world works. But none of this should matter in the slightest, because this "nomination" isn't about Neil Gorsuch to begin with.
The Republican Party broke faith with the Constitution in order to deny a sitting president his constitutionally-mandated Supreme Court pick, or any other pick, period, for the last full year of his term for no other reason than Mitch McConnell desired to. This new nominee, whoever his name is, is the result of that anti-democratic, party-over-country act. There shouldn't be any nominee, period, until that act is acknowledged and addressed.
We cannot continue to function as a democracy while one of the two political parties simply refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy or authority of elected government figures holding any ideology other than their own. It is corrupt, and autocratic, and whether some filthy-rich oil tycoon might or might not want his own personal pet installed in that position afterward doesn't enter into it.