Jessica Campbell-Swanson, an activist from Denver, sits in the lap of a sculpture known as the Statue of Contemplation of Justice on the steps of the Supreme Court Building where she and others protested the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as the high court's newest justice, in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
It’s official. Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed by the United States Senate to take a well-deserved seat on the United States Supreme Court. The vote held Saturday afternoon came in at 50 to 48. While there have been some pugnacious battles over Supreme Court nominees in the past, this one has been the most disgraceful by far.
For me personally, this particular event has been the one in which I have taken the most active role of my young issue-driven life. Since stepping onto the public square in 2012 I have been outspoken on a variety of topics. Whenever there has been a debate on the national stage, nobody has had to go looking to find me. I’ve been there. Always making the argument for free markets, first principles, and limited government.
This Kavanaugh nomination has motivated me like nothing before. In the past week, I have taken every interview, written wherever I could be published, and counseled everyone in and around Washington I could find to stress the risk faced by our Republic if Kavanaugh could be defeated through a social activist, George Soros-directed version of “Wag the Dog.”
I went so far as to say it was the event people like Orwell, Huxley, and Rand had warned us about.
We had to fight. We had to get him confirmed. We couldn’t let a mindless automaton-like mob, led by dark anti-American forces behind a curtain, derail the Constitutional process of placing a president’s pick on the Supreme Court. I said this was bigger than the Supreme Court, bigger than mid-term elections, bigger than the Trump presidency.
If it weren’t for the voice of MAGA people being raised and for the unexpected courage of Senators Graham, Collins, and Manchin, he could have – would have – easily been rejected by the Senate. If that had happened there would have been no stopping this movement that my friend Jonah Goldberg correctly identified a decade ago as liberal fascism.
This radical element inside America manipulating often well-meaning people into a frenzy came within a Diane Feinstein eyelash of vaporizing a man from public life who had more than a quarter century of exemplary public service behind him.
I made one mistake last week in my own personal crusade to help Judge Kavanaugh get confirmed. I said it was “the” moment we had been warned about. That was too limiting. It was “a” moment.
Here they come.
This radical element inside America manipulating often well-meaning people into a frenzy came within a Diane Feinstein eyelash of vaporizing a man from public life who had more than a quarter century of exemplary public service behind him. They aren’t going to surrender. They are going to fall back, regroup, and they will charge again.
While the people behind all of this plan their next attack on American systems, processes, and values, there is a derivative problem about which to worry. The rabid mob they have ginned up isn’t going to just recede in the background and await further instructions. They have tasted blood.
The basic physical safety of anyone willing to speak up in support of this confirmation – members of Congress, conservative commentators, everyday citizens – are at risk.
The organizers of this madness want victory. And social media has given them the tool to create a frenzy among average citizens who otherwise might be happy going about their daily lives.
They probably can’t believe how close they just came to winning while having no real “game” at all aside from some uncorroborated decades-old accusations. Their people in the streets are itching for a fight.
So, we need to get ready. We need to show up in November and vote. We need to be ready to counter-protest when the need arises. We need to be willing to raise our voices like Senators Graham, Collins, Manchin and others.
And we need to be ready to stand up for ourselves like Judge – excuse me, Supreme Court Justice – Brett Kavanaugh did in his September 27 testimony.
Enjoy the victory. And get ready for the next fight.
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