Kava-NUTS!

Brett Kavanaugh is a Supreme Court justice.

We all laughed, didn't we?  We all chortled when Kavanaugh lost his cool and made himself look like a bigger jerk than he was with the way he lashed out at his detractors.  But it led to the Republican base rallying behind him as ferociously as the Democratic base has rallied against him.  Democratic chances of taking back the House, while still good, have slipped a bit, and the Democrats' already slim chances of taking back the Senate have slimmed even further.  Some of the most odious incumbent GOP senators and GOP Senate candidates might end up winning after being behind in the polls.  And I don't even want to look at the polls in the gubernatorial elections.

Judge K - I've decided to call the new Supreme Court justice by his gangsta name from now on - was confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 50 to 48, tying Clarence Thomas for having the highest negative vote for a confirmed justice and getting two positive votes fewer than Thomas.  (Republican Steve Daines of Montana was at his daughter's wedding and Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska abstained, as she had voted against having the confirmation vote at all.)  When Thomas was confirmed in 1991, he at least offered regret for the contentiousness of the hearings stemming from Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment, standing out in the rain under an umbrella on the very night he was confirmed and expressing hope that the country could heal. Judge K didn't even do that. I'll come right out and say it; he's a prick.  

Judge K's confirmation comes on the heels of a good week for Donald Trump, having received a report of the lowest unemployment rate in nearly fifty years (not to mention the lowest wages) and a renegotiation of NAFTA with Canada and Mexico (not so much a renegotiation as it was the diplomatic equivalent of putting a different sleeve on a Blind Faith album), so he and the Republicans go into the final month of the midterm campaign with the wind at their backs.  That wind may very well be their own.  The Republican base has been fired up, yes, but the Democratic base - women, people of color, white men who don't have grievances against women and people of color and whose biggest complaint about today's America is that it's getting hard to find a decent radio station - is already fired up and will be fired up even more.  Now is the time to stop protesting Judge K's elevation to the Supreme Court - it's done.  Now instead is the time to start organizing the the November midterms and get out the vote.  Instead of marching in the streets, it's time to march to the polls.  And if the Democrats blow this one . . . you know the rest.