Everything the Dems have been facing have been the result of their own previous actions

Everything the Dems have been facing have been the result of their own previous actions

In 2013, the Dems passed a rule change for Senate filibusters on executive and judicial appointments, except for Supreme Court nominations. A filibuster is a common tactic used to delay a vote on a bill. Basically, a senator or group of senators would speak for however long they could manage on any topic they choose. It can only be broken up by a vote to invoke cloture, which needs three-fifths of all Senators (60, in this case) to pass.

The rules change (S. Res. 16) effectively eliminated the filibuster as a means to delay executive and judicial confirmation votes (again, excluding the Supreme Court). This was justified because the Republicans were blocking votes on Obama's appointees, and the amount of confirmation votes that were needed to be taken was growing. Without the filibuster, confirmation votes now only needed 51 votes to pass instead of a filibustered 60.

Fast forward to the current month, where President Trump has nominated people whose sole ideologies are to stop the very Agencies they are supposed to run; An uneducated religious fanatic to run the Department of Education. A billionaire CEO who opposes workers rights to run Labor. A climate change denier who has sued the very Agency he is nominated to run multiple times. The list goes on.

Now that the Senate is split 52-46-2 in favor of Republicans and considering how votes are more or less along party lines, all of Trump's unfit appointees are more or less bound to get confirmed for each of the positions. I'm not going to blame Obama, but the Dems really shot America in the foot with their short-sightedness.

You can research Senate filibuster rules (Wikipedia does a good job) if you're interested. You can also use www.govtrack.us to track the voting records of your representatives as well as on various pieces of legislation.