Don’t let Mitch McConnell take this away from you

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It feels like we’re losing this Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearing, doesn’t it? Republican Senators are trotting out such vile, dishonest, openly racist antics, you’d think they had this in the bag. It’s enough to turn your stomach and make you wish these confirmation hearings weren’t happening.

But that’s part of the Republicans’ strategy. They know that we have the votes, these hearings are a mere formality, and Judge Brown Jackson will be confirmed to the Supreme Court. They also know there’s nothing they can do to stop it.

That’s why they’re trying to make the whole thing feel so icky, it doesn’t feel like we’re winning. Then we become demotivated after our big win, instead of seizing momentum heading into the midterms.

Don’t let the Senate Republicans make you feel that way. We’re putting a highly qualified individual on the Supreme Court, in a way that makes long overdue history. This is a victory that we can, and should, hang our hats on. We should be spending every day between now and November hyping the fact that we put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. We should be using this victory to paint ourselves as winners, and to win over additional voters heading into the midterms.

Mitch McConnell has a knack for making you think he’s always winning, even when he’s losing. It’s why, back when he had control of the Senate, he would always start off by announcing that he had the votes, even when he clearly did not have the votes. It was his way of making us feel dejected so we wouldn’t bother fighting for the swing votes, which of course made it easier for him to win over the swing votes. Now that he’s not in control, McConnell tries to make our every fantastic win feel like a stomach churning loss. Don’t let this creep, and his GOP Senate henchmen, into your head. This is a big win for us, and yes, we can use it to win the midterms – if we put in the work required to win.