Like a lot of my fellow liberals, moderates and folks who still love our country enough to object to it being turned over to Russian and American mobsters and the Evangelical Inquisition, the news of the announced Kennedy retirement at the end of July was a helluva gut punch. And I'll admit, my first thought upon hearing it, after all these months of the exaustion of experiencing the horror upon horror of the Trumputin regime, was to simply say, "Game over, man." But after a little while I got my sea legs under me again and started really looking at the situation. I realized it's not as hopeless as it seemed at first, and there are two reasons why.
Reason #1: Kennedy was touted as a "swing" vote on the court, but, in fact, he was mostly reliably conservative. Unless Trump nominates someone like Jeanine Pirro (and I wouldn't put it past him, but I have to believe that enough of the conservatives in congress aren't so far gone that they would let an actual loon sit on the SC), we haven't really lost or gained anything. It will simply be one conservative justice substituted for another. And the fact that Roberts ruled the ACA was constitutional leads me to believe that he is not as reliable a radical conservative vote on the court as the extremist right might like.
Reason #2: Now, I'm going to say something here that a lot of people might consider to be "uncivil" (people who actually know me will not be shocked by that in the least), but people die. They die every day. I was a little peeved at one time that Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn't retire during Obama's term so that a younger liberal-to-moderate justice could be placed by Obama, but after witnessing the theft by obstruction that Mitch McConnell committed regarding Merrick Garland I'm glad she didn't. If she can hold on until January and we can manage to take the Senate this year (with enough Democrats who actually have guts and aren't worried about "comity" with conservative thugs) we can block any further nominations made by Trumputin - just like McConnell did with Garland. Stephen Breyer is 79 years old. Clarence Thomas is 70 years old and appears to have the physique of a man who lives on triple cheeseburgers and 100 proof corn syrup. And, like I said, anyone can die any day and people do with regularity. If we have the Senate with Dems who have the guts to do what it takes, we could hold off on any confirmations to the SC until the 2020 presidential election. And if we manage to take the senate and the presidency we can eventually demolish the conservative majority on the court. If we can add control of the house to the mix we can burn the traitorous republican party to the ground and take back the country the majority of Americans love and want to keep.
I know things might seem hopeless right how, but hope does still exist, even if only by a thin margin, and that's worth fighting for. So take heart, my friends, and keep fighting. The long game isn't over yet.