The Democrats are going to spend millions of dollars to make Neil Gorsuch look bad in the eye of public opinion. They cannot confirm Gorsuch without a fight. They need the liberal groups to continue funding candidates in the Democrat Party. If they do not fight, they will not get enough money to run for the Senate and House seats. A Republican challenger or even challenger in their own party can use their actions against them, when running in mid-term elections.
For Democrats its about pandering to the party’s radical left, which is now its mainstream.
They will fight Gorsuch not with an eye to 2018 but looking forward to 2020.
Any one running for the Democratic presidential nomination will have to position themselves on the hard left.
That is why they will try to see to it this nomination goes down in flames.