To take on this challenge - Isn’t that exactly the situation with the recent Supreme Court nominations? One party break the norms and refuse to vote because they want to wait until they can nominate someone. The other party could have done the same, but didn’t, because principles.
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This is incorrect. The Republicans did it to Merrick Garland, and could, because they controlled enough Senate seats.
The Democrats would have done the same to Brett Kavanaugh, but couldn't, because they didn't control enough Senate seats. They instead tried numerous other tactics that I would not call "principled" to stop the nomination, and failed.
There were Democrats that voted for Gorsuch. The Democrats are absurdly naïvely playing a game of principles their opponents don't respect and don't know what “hardball” means.
Also, it just really isn't true, that democrats have been markedly more principled with respect to judicial nominations, at least in the past several decades. Its been an escalating war of attrition on both sides - neither unwilling or even reluctant to violate norms or make the process even more political.
Democrats basically pioneered the use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees during the Bush Jr era, which was a pretty clear instance of ethically questionable, "innovative", partisan obstruction.
They were forced to relent when republicans gained enough seats in Bush's second term and threatened the "nuclear option" (the elimination of the filibuster).
Republicans made every effort to outdo the democrats during the Obama years with filibusters. Harry Reid then went nuclear to push through Obama nominees with simple majorities (removing the best tool democrats would have had to oppose Kavanaugh today). The capstone for the republicans of the Obama era was blocking Merrick Garland.
Now we have Kavanaugh. There's just no great way to interpret the democrats moves as principled here, even if you think Ford's allegations are credible (I do). The democrats needed to to obstruct and delay until the midterms, and the only tools to do it were delays, scandals and public pressure on the senate swing votes.
And republicans voted for Kagan, Sotomayor, and Ginsburg. The democrat party is no more principled than anyone else.
Gorsuch didn't tip the balance of the court, nor was his confirmation within spitting distance of the midterms. The stakes for both parties were much higher in the Kavanaugh battle.