Fear and loathing every day; a lost battle; strategic failures; brights spots and hope.

With the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, the nation now finds itself on the precipice of disaster. No, not because Kavanaugh was given one of the most powerful positions on the planet, but because of how each side has responded to what can best be described as a bad joke.

I am progressive and find every aspect of Kavanaugh's ideology offensive. He was a hired gun by Trump and the rest of his party. Trump cared about his view on Presidential power and the rest of the Senate cared about his views on abortion.

This disaster has been a long, slow-play by the Republican party. While we focused on identity politics to garner wide ranging popularity, the Republicans knew that their grasp on the popularity contest would fade as fast as a polar icecap. So what did they do? They changed the nation more demonstrably through the courts than they could ever do with elections. We are stuck with a court which will almost surely roll back most of the progress this nation has made in the last 50 years.

Senators like Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley will be long dead by the time this mess unravles itself - and they won't care.

Sadly, that is not the precipice of danger on which our nation teeters. That is only a symptom of a long brewing second Civil War. It is coming. Will it be a war with guns? The progressive movement better hope not, because they are not the ones who own the guns. There will be increasing violence; there will be an increased tension in every workplace. This war will be visceral and it will reshape America; maybe not in a good way.

Many pundits have already talked about what is going to happen "when" Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives next month. They believe that the Democrats will immediately begin their own attack from within on Trump and his acolytes; dragging them to Congress, putting them under subpoena and forcing the 'dirty little secrets' to be exposed.

While this appeals to our most base desire; a sort of carnal pleasure in tearing down a man who is ultimately unfit to be a Cub Scout Troop-master let alone President of he United States. They will smell blood and go for the jugular. And that will only fuel the fires of discord among Americans. We picked sides a long time ago and the advent of talk radio (read: Rush Limbaugh) created zero tolerance for anyone who did not share our opinion. We stopped having discourse and broke down to nothing more than screaming matches. So what do you think will happen if Democrats start this 'show of power' to tear down Trump? His base will be infuriated and will fight back. Remember Charlottesville? Nothing compared to what will happen if Democrats make a show of tearing down the hero of the Alt-Right. They see a sort of legitimacy in their racist ideology under Trump and will fight hard should we extort America's emotions to the level many expect.

I am worried about people like Micheal Avennatti. First, let me get this out there to be clear: Avennatti is infinitely more intelligent than Donald Trump. Trump is an imbecilic con man. But I disagree with the thought that we need to fight fire with fire in the case of campaigning against Trump.

As the old saying goes; when you wallow in the mud with pigs, everyone comes out smelling like manure. A win using Trump's tactics against him will only further separate and divide this nation and that is not what we need. Making a spectacle of the continuing investigations will also continue to divide and conquer this nation from within.

That does not mean go down without a fight and that does not mean that we do not continue to investigate crimes; it just means that someone has to bring civility back to the table. The soul of our nation is at stake and we are failing to save ourselves. We are a nation infested with ideological termites; watching our very foundation crumble from the rot.

STRATEGIC FAILURES

These issues are deeper as well. Simply put, there is no unity, no strategy in the Progressive movement. A year ago I moved to South Carolina. It is a dark red state; everywhere I go, I am inundated with vitriol directed toward my beliefs. People are shocked that I don't own a gun (and never have) and simply say that I am un-American because I do not feel the need to own one.

You know who has not made any presence known to me since my arrival? The Democratic Party. No one. Not a call. Not a piece of mail. Not a knock on the door. This state flat out gave up in many ways.

There is little or no long-term strategy that I can see by the party to change America for the better. Everything we are doing right now is reactive. While much of the book 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' seems somewhat trite and saccharine, there is also a lot of value in understanding the concepts. What is the end goal? Be PROACTIVE not reactive.

I don't see a coherent message; I don't see a long-term goal and I definitely see a party which reacts to everything that Trump and the Republican band of clowns does rather than being proactive.

It took the Democratic Party twenty years and a lost 2000 election to attempt a counter to the Federalist Society. Twenty years of lost potential. Sure, the American Constitution Society has made some progress, but now that seems to be a case of too little too late. As former ACS Executive Director Lisa Brown once said ""No one understood the power of the model [the Federalists] were creating until relatively recently," she continued, "and I think all of a sudden people woke up and said, 'Wait a minute! How could we be asleep at the switch for so long?'"

Exactly; asleep for so long. AS were Progressive leaders when the Republican party went to work completely recreating the shape of the House of Representatives through gerrymandering. The list could go on and on. The Republican Party was very clear where the path to control was - through gerrymandered representation and a court packed with Federalist Society members.

They have won that battle and we have watched almost dumbfounded as our Democratic base has pooled itself in a very few places. Winning a popular vote doesn't matter in a nation divided by gerrymandered districts which favor Republicans in every non-major city. 

BRIGHT SPOT? OR NOT

The bright spot, some say, is the backdoor effort to change the manner in which the electoral college is determined. If enough states change their rules which allocate their electoral votes based on the popular vote; then the popular vote winner will become President.

That seems attractive in the moment because, in general, the Democratic Party is more likely to win a popular vote at the Presidential level than the Republicans. But what happens if that trend reverses for any number of reasons? Then we have a stacked Supreme Court; gerrymandered House Districts and a populist movement which we created? That can also be a very bad thing because it could last a full generation or more.

This is the prickly dilemma in which we find ourselves. We are seemingly rudderless and have lost the major battles while focusing on the minor ones.

HOPE?

All is not dire. We find ourselves on the precipice of a major moral catastrophe; but there is hope. On the edge of a second Civil War, we must fight for what is right; we must not wallow in the mud with pigs; we must be better than the opponent. We must engage the American electorate not with vitriol, bitterness and hatred, but with logic, hope, plans, faith and a dogged desire to ensure Americans understand one important thing: We want an America that leads the world in tolerance, dignity, respect, a leader in human rights, with an eye to the future. We don't need America to be 'great again.' She was already great.

We need America to be better.