Despite Bork, despite Thomas, despite Alito, Republicans smilingly rubber-stamped an egghead, an activist, a dolt, and another egghead to the Supreme Court. I can, without being snide, understand why the left was so aggrieved they didn't rubber-stamp Garland on as well.
From their perspective, everything they did was good and right, and Republicans had implicitly conceded this for decades. To actually respond without the histrionics and more effectively breaks the rules the American left thought everyone had adopted.
Therefore, to respond to "MERRICK GARLAND" with "BORK, THOMAS, ALITO" strikes them as an utter non sequitur because those men were manifestly not fit for the Court because the left had so decided it.
A significant fraction therefore sees throwing mud all over a Republican nominee as a form of punishment for rule-breaking; or less elegantly, vengeance for the Republicans being the first to break the rules.
