So, to the surprise of what should've been no one, Trump's three Supreme Court nominees have sided with the party that installed them into power to: Undermine separation of church and state, rip up gun laws by continuing the trend of misinterpreting the 2nd Amendment to mean anyone can carry guns anywhere (even though they obviously never could) and imposing a religion's moral beliefs onto a nation that was founded in part on escape from religious persecution.

Some on the left have blamed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg for not retiring in 2013 or 2014 when Obama offered her the opportunity to do so. However, Ginsburg is not to blame for this. She had no way of foreseeing in 2013/2014 just how far the GOP would go in their quest to obtain and maintain power at any means. She could not have foreseen the GOP inventing a phony precedent to block Merrick Garland, then defying that precedent twice to ram through Kavanaugh and Berett. She obviously hoped to hold on until Trump was defeated in 2020, at which point she would be able to step down and ensure a Democratic president would nominate her successor. If she had foreseen the events of 2015-2020, I am certain she would've stepped down when given the chance. And I am grateful that Stephen Breyer did not make the same mistake after seeing what happened to Ginsburg (though if he had really wanted to prove the Supreme Court was still somehow apolitical, he should've stepped down in 2021 as soon as Biden was sworn in or as soon as the Trump impeachment trial wrapped up).

What I will blame are the likes of Joe Manchin for acting surprised even though he had to know in his heart that a one week investigation aimed at discrediting a witness was not enough time to determine if Kavanaugh was innocent of sexual misconduct (nevermind that his behavior displayed when accused of the act should've disqualified him on the grounds that he could not be trusted to be impartial). He can claim he did it to save his re-election campaign in 2018 and keep Democrats' Senate hopes alive, but he need only look to his fellow Red state Dems in 2018 who, despite knowing that a vote for Kavanaugh could probably save their campaigns, decided they would rather lose re-election than violate their principals.

Democrats are seeing it in real time that, despite the evidence displayed by the January 6 hearings, the GOP are not yielding and Trump and the GOP are continuing to march towards authoratarinism under the guise of stopping "socialism" or even policies deemed as "woke". There is no winning over people who despite the evidence right in front of them still believe that Trump somehow won in 2020 and that January 6 2021 was not an act of treason and domestic terrorism committed by far-right actors acting on behalf of Trump. If they cannot even accept Joe Biden's win as legitimate despite Biden having worked with many GOPers in the Senate for decades, why should we believe they'll ever accept any Democrat at all?

Democrats need to capitalize on the anger and outrage so many marginalized groups are feeling now. That is what put states like Texas, Georgia and Arizona in play after decades of them being reliably Red states. Democrats there didn't try to play nice with a GOP marching to the tune of one man, they went out there and took a stand to show what Democrats truly believe. And they need to do so on a national level, to show that there is a difference between the two political parties. The GOP party of now cannot be saved and neither does it want to be saved.

Democrats have constantly been searching for the next FDR, but they need to understand part of what it was that has made FDR one of the best presidents among historians. FDR was a president who rose to the occasion, realizing that the circumstances being what they were necessitated dramatic actions to change the status quo, not to maintain it. Democrats must go out there and be willing to play offense, not defense. Take the fight to the GOP instead of letting the GOP constantly define the terms of battle. And above all else, fight back hard against disinformation. We cannot assume that Americans will know better, because they sadly don't. If they did know better, Trump would've never been able to rise to power, let alone almost maintain it.