Democrats can’t fight.  I don’t know why.  I’ve not seen any explanation that rings true.  It’s just the way it is.  Democrats get steam-rollered whenever push comes to shove or debate comes to yell.

The latest example is the debate over Neil Gorsuch, the nominee for the Supreme Court put forward by popular-vote loser Donald Trump.  We have Democratic Senators talking as if there were a debate to be had.  Is he qualified?  Are his views too extreme?  Might any of his past rulings be disqualifying?  We’ve been sucker punched, and these Senators want to debate which set of boxing rules we should proceed under.  

This is madness.  We are up against a Republican Party that is a wannabe oligarchy and that will act on that ambition unconstrained by any moral code.  

We will lose the vote, one way or another.  Our fight, then, is for messaging, for public opinion.  The great bulk of the electorate doesn’t care about and won’t remember tomorrow this guy’s qualifications or past rulings.  When Republicans chastise us for doing what they have done for the past year and we respond by mumbling about Hobby Lobby or some other fine but pointless point, we already are losing the only battle we have a chance to win.  We are getting rolled — again — by Republican hypocrisy and deceit. 

All that matters, and the only thing we ever must talk about, is that Mitch McConnell and his wannabe be oligarchs, in a raw power grab, spat upon our democracy and stole a Supreme-Court Seat.

Our message must be short, simple, and repeated ad nauseam.  This is about a stolen seat.  In the New York Times, David Leonhardt gave us a well-reasoned argument for fighting this way.  Normally, I would be appreciative.  This time, I don’t give a damn about well-reasoned arguments.  This is a street fight.  Senator Jeff Merkley has figured it out.  I have not heard it from others.   

Every Senator, every Representative, every party functionary, every one of us must say it over and over: “This is an illegitimate nomination.  This is a stolen seat.”  Our goal is that, when the dust clears, what the public remembers is that the Republicans literally stole a Supreme Court seat.