I've been writing a bunch about the tactics of the Kavanaugh nomination fight, but now I want to look at the bigger picture - even beyond the current election.
Donald Trump is unique in many ways, but what really sets him apart from other politicians is his long-term planning. He offers a public persona of an impulsive, outspoken buffoon, but one can't make money in real estate without the ability to craft and execute a detailed yet flexible long-term plan.
Consider his approach vs alleged political genius Karl Rove. Rove's strategy was based in trimming the margins in micro-targeted demographics. By picking up a point here and a half-point there, he'd get the GOP to 52 percent of the popular vote, which would in turn get them over 270 electoral votes.
Trump's approach is completely different, as I noted before. He isn't interesting in goosing a few more independent voters in this district or getting the base to come through and squeak in. He's attacking the very core of the Democrat coalition and exploiting their known (and often bitter) fissures.
That's what's going on right. The hard-hat wing of the Dems gave Trump the win in 2016 and he's working hard to keep them happy. Big Labor's leadership may remain nominally Democrat, but the rank and file are following the man who gave them their jobs and dignity back.
The Kavanaugh nomination fight exposed another fault line - that between affluent white women and everyone else. I saw some really disturbing images being passed around last week, as black voters recalled what happened the last time society bought into the whole "women never lie about rape" concept.
It's hard to believe that the Democrats could be so stupid as to hearken back to that dark lamentable episode in American history and treat it like it was a good thing.
Even more amazing was the way that once-respected institutions felt the need to destroy themselves. The American Civil Liberties Union has been in decline for a while, but for them to come out and abandon the principle of innocent until proven guilty marks a watershed. They can't be taken seriously.
This was a battle the Dems didn't need to fight. They had put Kavanaugh through the ringer, riled up their base and the GOP was going to be hard-pressed to squeak the guy through as it was. The final confirmation vote would have probably been just as close, but GOP faithful would be outraged once again as the RINOs failed to hang together.
Meanwhile, other events, like yet another bloated budget, would have dampened base turnout. It may not have been a "blue wave" but it wouldn't have been good.
All that has changed. The GOP is unified in a way I've not seen in a long time. There's a sense of swagger and confidence and now Lindsey Graham of all people is a conservative folk hero.
At the same time, a lot of suburban women who might have been sensitive to protecting Roe v. Wade are now incensed at the thought that their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons could have their lives ruined by an unsubstantiated allegation of decades-old misbehavior.
The core charges in the case were so remote and so petty that it meant that pretty much any man could be destroyed at any time. Here again, the Dems betrayed their own principles. Where once they advocated forgiveness for criminals and sweeping away "youthful indiscretions," they now demanded an impossible standard of personal behavior and one that we all know none of them can meet.
The spectacle of the United States Senate reviewing a high school yearbook and demanding detailed explanations of 80s slang demonstrated beyond any doubt that they have no intellectual core, merely hatred and a thirst for power.
Finally, there is the fact that the Democrats are rapidly showing that they cannot behave with any responsibility whatsoever. The media is downplaying the episode, but it was no unpaid intern who leaked personal information on GOP senators and threatened to expose their children and grandchildren. He was a seasoned operative who worked for multiple offices.
We've gotten used to left-wing violence but the level has increased from kabuki-type protests and random ruffianism to a low-level insurgency.
Even committed liberals don't want to see militias roaming the streets and ambushing people for their choice of yard signs or bumper stickers.
The key element in all this is that not only did Kavanaugh's appointment shape the judicial landscape, it's changed the cultural landscape as well by inflicting long-term damage on the Democrats.
Like Stalingrad this was not a battle the Dems had to fight, but once they went in, they kept escalating, which has had the effect of magnifying their losses far beyond any potential gain.
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