Kavanaugh’s confirmation is basically the endgame of ~liberals’ reliance on the courts to uphold progressive ideals. If he’s confirmed, it’ll be bad. If he isn’t confirmed, it’ll be worse: mega-Bork on steroids to the umpteenth power. Conservatives will shake off decades of mere simmering resentment and shift into a much more aggressive mode — burning every-fkn-thing down. Which, BTW, would be a big win for Trump: he’ll happily oblige complete institutional destruction, nominate someone much worse for the SC, and fire up the base for the midterm elections. Think about that for a minute, because Trump’s brain trust — think Bannon and Miller — are definitely thinking about it. But I’m not making a centrist plea that we should sing kumbaya with neonazis. Absolutely not. But here’s the thing: rightists love executive power, and somehow over the decades — mainly since the ’70s, I think — leftists (not liberals) have become terrified of exercising power, as if it were some dark force. They’re much more comfortable with consultative governance — the legislative and judicial branches. But we won’t make any real progress until the left embraces raw power as much as the right does. Bad news: that means accepting force — very much including violence — as a legitimate means to pursue leftist aims. Not because it’s good or right, but because it’s necessary to achieve them. The only way to dissuade the forces supporting the right is to scare them: say, by coming up with, let’s say, very compelling disincentives for people who betray the public trust — banksters and their enablers, corrupt officials, and (yes) traitors. Short of that, everything is just a slap on the wrists. But I can’t see the left accepting this anytime soon, so brace yourself. So, until the left provides an absolutely effective counter to the right, it’s going to get much, much worse before it gets better. And even if the left got all woke to this tomorrow morning, it’d still get much worse before it gets better. You’re thinking “But…but…2018! 2020!” I’m thinking: “Not in your lifetime.”