“Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire.” – Czech-Austrian composer Gustav Mahler

Southerners love tradition. It forms a major part of our culture, and our deeper connection to nostalgia and rituals separates us from other regions of the country.

Want to see how many true, blue friends and family members you have? Schedule your wedding for a Saturday during college football season.

Want to test how strong of a Christian a fellow church parishioner is? Start sitting in that person’s long-held seat during worship services, and see if your brother or sister in Christ can hold his or her tongue.

There are hundreds of other football Saturdays and plenty of other pews in the church sanctuary, but forcing a change to the usual rhythms of life can cause more than a smidgen of consternation. Folks just tend to find comfort in the familiar in the midst of a rapidly changing world.

In this regard, Southerners share a similarity to the U.S. Senate. It also operates deliberately and values seniority and customs.

One of the sober-minded customs of the Senate is the practice of blue-slip appointments of federal judges and U.S. attorneys. This process has become a point of contention between the president and his Republican colleagues in the Senate in recent weeks.

You may not be familiar with this feature of Senate operations. Even I had to look up some of the finer details of the blue-slip process and found Barry McMillion of the Congressional Research Service has published a good synopsis. I am lifting some of his research in the following simplified explanation.

The Senate is in charge of approving a president’s appointments of federal judges from the district court level up to the circuit court level up to the Supreme Court.

The Senate also must approve the U.S. attorneys, nominated by the president for four-year terms, to represent the government in criminal and civil court cases in every federal judicial district in the country. That can add up to be a lot of appointments.

A little more than a century ago the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman began a custom of sending a blue-colored form to the two senators from a nominee’s home state.

The senators can then mark on that blue slip of paper whether they approve of the nominee or do not support the nominee. This process is not an official rule of the Senate but has emerged over time as a valued custom.

Depending on who the Judiciary Committee’s chairman is at the time and which position is being filled, either one or both of that state’s senators have to indicate their support of the nominee to have a shot at being approved.

Senators have made a point to continue this practice as it benefits them in a couple of ways. First, it provides senators some opportunity to get access to the president and his staff to discuss policies and politics involving issues beyond just the potential appointment.

Second, it allows senators to reward political allies who desire a federal court appointment as well as punish political enemies looking for an appointment. A president is less likely to nominate a candidate knowing the confirmation process may not even get off the ground if a senator returns an unfavorable blue slip.

As you are probably aware, President Donald Trump is not one with a great appreciation for tradition.

Trump has been critical of current Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for continuing the blue slip process, pointing out it is preventing him from appointing several loyalists as U.S. attorneys in states with Democratic senators who usually block Trump’s appointments.

Grassley and a few other Republican senators who have come to his defense are not eager to change the blue-slip process. While Trump is focused on remaking government as much as possible in his second term, Grassley and his comrades are taking a more long-term view.

Grassley knows if Republicans do away with blue slips, Democrats will do the same the next time they take control of the presidency and Senate and will ram though ideologically liberal judges and attorneys in conservative states just as Trump wants to do now with conservative attorneys in liberal-leaning states.

Trump has shown an impressive ability to move skeptical Republicans into his camp on several issues. However, he is fighting an uphill battle on this issue that I doubt even he can overcome since senators will not be eager to give up this power.

For now, if I may misquote Shakespeare, “Cry havoc, and blue slip the dogs of war.”