Regardless of whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is ultimately confirmed by the Senate or not, the circus surrounding it will have a tremendous impact on our body politic. The #MeToo movement, which has helped many female victims receive long-begotten justice in high-profile cases, is now being utilized as a partisan weapon by the Democratic Party, who will stoop to any level to manipulate the emotions of the citizenry to win November's crucial mid-term elections.
All Republicans need to take a deep breath, shake themselves out of their cloud of anger, and try to learn lessons from the chaos and calamity because this is far from the end. GOP leaders have already made the problem far worse than it had to be and only so many of these blunders can occur before lasting damage is done to the conservative cause. It is incumbent upon us to regroup and strategize appropriately to make sure these types of politically advantageous claims can be successfully rebutted when they arise in the future.
Lesson #1: Trumpism is the only way forward
In what may have been a fortuitous coincidence or was perhaps another example of 4D chess, Trump picked an establishment supported candidate in Brett Kavanaugh as his second proposed Supreme Court nominee. Although some of Trump's die-hard supporters were tepid on the pick at first, the attacks from the left quickly solidified him into a hero. He had the full fledged support of the NeverTrump right from the outset because of his closeness to President George W. Bush, and those folks have been radicalized tremendously throughout the grueling process.
What is left of the Buckleyites thought that they and the "sane voices in the room" on the Left could sweep this Trump embarrassment under the rug and head back to the politics of the past. That delusion is no longer tenable. The inmates run the asylum on the Left, and every denizen must submit to every ridiculous trope regarding gender, sex, race, etc. or face the social consequences. Because groupthink is their default preset, nobody can speak up against this institutional insanity without getting cannibalized by the jackals.
Commentators like Erick Erickson, David French and John Podhoretz have to be realizing that Trump's approach is vindicated. They can bemoan Trump for swatting the hornets nest and stirring up the Left, but the communist threat is coming to destroy the lives of anyone who is to the right to Karl Marx. If you are white, Christian, conservative or a male (just one of these attributes is enough), they will target you and your family with a heinous smear campaign, and that will just be the beginning. Trumpism is currently the only viable alternative to the Orwellian machinations of the Left.
Lesson #2: We are all in this together
The Republican Party has always been wrought with large egos jockeying for attention, money and power. Whereas the Democrats are seemingly on the same page over their agenda, Republicans have factionalized and that has only worsened over the years. Trump was the result of this toxic climate, and he seemingly made the problem drastically worse with his rise in the GOP. However, that has changed as the Left has become more unhinged and a new eclectic coalition of surprising allies has coalesced around the president.
The most vociferous defender of Kavanaugh during Thursday's hearings was arguably South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham ran for president in 2016 largely as a wet blanket attempting to cool the Trump revolution, but has come around in years since. Trump has also been able to hatch out solid working relationships with Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch, Rand Paul, Tom Cotton, and Mark Meadows - an interesting cross-section of political leaders. Trump has muddied the waters from the sectarian fights of the tea party era by putting together a coalition that seemed inconceivable just last year.
Some have been left behind - like now deceased former Sen. John McCain whose vendetta with Trump became personal, soon-to-be-gone Sens. Bob Corker and Jeff Flake who staked their careers on opposing Trump's rise in the GOP, and Reps. Justin Amash and Walter Jones who went from constitutional heroes to pariahs over their stubborn opposition to the president - but the overwhelming consensus of the Republican Party is firmly behind Trump. Kavanaugh's railroading has only strengthened Trump's power over his constituency, and this party unity will be needed for what is to come.
Lesson #3: This is a total war for the future of America
The Left is never going to capitulate. They have gone too far to stop now. They will only escalate things drastically from this point forward. They will repeat any lie - no matter how absurd, cruel or disgusting it may be - to stop President Trump and his supporters. Anyone who believes in the Constitution, the rule of law, due process, and the presumption of innocence is a racist Nazi guilty of sexual assault. This is the future that we will live in if the Left is successful, and it is probably worse than what Orwell envisioned in '1984.'
Anyone watching intently during the Obama years could see what was forming on the Left, but it has reached critical mass due to Trump's meteoric success. People who do not closely follow politics are seeing what the Left is really all about aside from that flowery veneer of tolerance and diversity. The average blue collar supporter of Trump has their eyes wide open, never to be closed again. This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment that we have to capitalize upon while there is still time.
Remember, the Left has many institutional advantages that are difficult to overcome. The demographic realities are on their side. The cultural downslide has already reached epidemic proportions. We cannot expect another Trump to come along and move things forward if he is ultimately stopped. This may be our final stand, and we have to move ever more boldly as a result. Trump has taught us that we have to be willing to fight as ruthlessly as the Left in order to win.
Even if Kavanaugh ultimately gets Borked, the silver lining in this disgusting spectacle is a unified GOP moving forward with the singular goal of crushing the Left. The line in the sand has been drawn, and there is no turning back. Even the most stubborn Trump haters of the Right see that now. The Kavanaugh hearing will be a seminal movement in this fractured era of politics, and if the GOP can muster the courage to get ferocious with their contemptible enemies, it can be the turning point toward Making America Great Again.