In 2005, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Kelo v. New London, diminishing Americans’ property rights. The ruling said that governments can seize your home through eminent domain, even if their intention is merely to hand the land over to private developers.

Conservatives saw this as one more bad ruling from a Supreme Court that issued a whole lot of them. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was a bit more sanguine, and her famous response exemplifies the respect and reverence that liberals once had for the Supreme Court, just so long as it was influencing culture and moving the national conversation in a way they liked.

“It is a decision of the Supreme Court,” she said, emphasizing its finality. “If Congress wants to change it, it will require legislation of a level of a constitutional amendment. So this is almost as if God has spoken.”

Today, the Left is in a panic because they fear that God’s voice (and perhaps even his wrath) are about to turn against them. And it is making them very dangerous. The Supreme Court’s composition is changing, and they have responded like cornered animals, with their vicious and desperate campaign of slander and political dirty tricks during the confirmation process of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

[Also read: Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court will radicalize the Democratic Party]

Liberals are so accustomed to getting their way that they cannot control themselves. They fear an era is coming to an end, and they want to prevent this. So before the newly reinforced, John Roberts-led court has heard a case or issued a single ruling, they are already doing everything in their power to delegitimize the institution they once looked upon as almost God.

The Left has vilified the presumption of innocence, the bedrock of our legal system and an indispensable moral principle as well. For even outside of criminal court, decent people simply don’t brook accusations that are presented without even the hint of corroborating evidence. Without proof, it is gossip, and especially so when the story is inconsistent and lacks basic details that could lead to proof one way or the other. The organizers of the not-insignificant Women’s March are assailing Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, as a rape apologist for merely adhering to this time-tested principle. This is how they treat anyone with whom they disagree.

The death threats and vile messages that progressive activists have aimed at Kavanaugh and his family, as well as at Republican senators’ offices and homes and families, is a clear statement of who they are, and why the nation will suffer if they are ever returned to power.

The Democrats who caused and put on the entire Kavanaugh farce are already promising to abuse their power further, if the voters will only give more of it to them. They are promising a scurrilous impeachment of Kavanaugh, and also to pack the Supreme Court if given the chance. Why? Because they are angry, and they don’t respect the rules and norms of government, and they are not mature or clever enough to wait to reveal this until they have power.

The same party that originally went nuclear on judicial confirmations — a temptation Republicans resisted ten years earlier in the same circumstances — have also brainwashed themselves into believing that they played no role in the breakdown of comity in our institutions of government. This makes them especially dangerous. Having failed to accept the outcome of the 2016 election, they are now trying to place an asterisk next to a lawfully and constitutionally confirmed Supreme Court justice.

In truth, the only cloud over Kavanaugh is the one that they worked hard — but not hard enough — to put there. When they promise to abuse power, and to be even more ruthless next time (it’s hard to imagine how they could do that without physical violence), voters should take them seriously.