In November 2008, during the peak of the Great Recession, incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel uttered one of the most politically savvy statements of the 21st century: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

It’s time to say the quiet part out loud: Senate confirmation hearings are a sham. We live for the yelling, the name-calling, and the best comebacks and shutdowns. It is political theater at its finest—and that’s exactly why it’s so problematic.