Let's be clear: Barring an amazing confluence of events, we won't be able to stop Neil Gorsuch from being confirmed. Whatever stages of grief you need to go through, this is the gospel truth.
The media can't stop telling us how qualified he is...what a great writer he is...how this isn't the hill Democrats should fight and die on.
Screw that. We need this fight. Avoiding it would be a mistake of gargantuan proportions.
I don't know if our leadership in congress pays attention to such things, but it turns out that liberals have been taking to the streets...and the airport...and the town hall. if the Trump Presidency has done one thing — it has stirred the troops.
All of that is for the good, but here’s the thing:
We NEED our elected representatives to mirror the same energy back at us.
Now.
On THIS hill.
This fight goes to the heart of all future fights. This seat was ours. We voted for Barack Obama to fill it. We were disenfranchised. Anyone claiming to lead us cannot be polite about accepting the unacceptable.
A soldier cannot fall in behind a leader whom they don't trust. This isn't the hill to die on. This is the hill to galvanize us all into one unbeatable force. We need this fight. We need to get a little bloody together. Think of it as team building.
Forget the filibuster. It's already gone. Forget saving bullets for the next fight. This fight will only make us stronger.
I say this as a moderate. As a guy who generally hates the “fight” mentality and gets nauseous about any whiff of purity testing. I say this as one of the last guys who would generally call for a show of so-called “spine.” So be aware. When guys like me start calling for blood, you’ve got virtually no constituency left for temperance.
There is no gain to be had by looking reasonable here. Haven't you gotten the message, we voted on “reasonable” and it lost.
Show us you can be unreasonable for us. Do that and we’ll show you what it's like to have an army behind you.