The person who wins the presidential election in 2020 will replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If it’s Joe Biden, we will hold our ground with a 5-4 conservative majority, and the occasional victory from a wayward conservative (like Chief Justice John Roberts on the Affordable Care Act decision). Also, there’s a decent chance that one of the conservative justices will exit the court at some point in the next four years. A liberal majority could be in reach.

If it’s Donald Trump, we’ll have a 6-3 conservative majority and the end of pretty much anything liberals value in America.

Religious conservatives held their noses after their party nominated the most morally bankrupt man in America, all because of the Supreme Court. They get it. Too many “progressives” don’t, hence the simple equation: a vote against Joe Biden, or simply staying home, is a vote for Donald Trump to replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

Pretty cut-and-dry and simple, right? Biden wasn’t my guy. He was like 10th on my list. But my candidate lost, and it’s time to move on to the even bigger battle. Most people get this. Some people don’t.

Apparently, being Green means allowing Trump to replace RBG, because nothing says “green” and “environmental” like a Supreme Court full of even more conservative judges. Climate change, fracking, environmental justice, handouts to the fossil fuel industry, kneecapping of the green energy economy … how can we handle all those issues with a 6-3 conservative court? The Green Party doesn’t care. Nor does Jill Stein.

Bernie Sanders ran a good race. Now it’s clearer than ever: establishment Dems’ top priority is sabotaging progressives to maintain their own power. @GreenPartyUS welcomes all who understand that the fight for people, planet & peace must continue. #DemExit https://t.co/csqsJCVAch — Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) April 8, 2020

If you read that tweet literally, she’s saying that Black voters were the “establishment” and did all the “sabotaging” of “progressives”—which apparently doesn’t include the Black community. But hey, she’s clearly all psyched about Trump replacing RBG.

Now there’s a #demexit hashtag on Twitter for all the people and Russian bots that want Trump to replace RBG to come together. We get gems like this:

The DNC has failed Bernie Sanders – and the American population – yet again. I woke up to the news that I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to see. It’s time. No more passively taking whatever shit the DNC throws our way. #DemExit — Darby Toth (@TothDarby) April 8, 2020

You see, everyone should have served Sanders. He shouldn’t have to, you know, win more votes than the alternatives. Also, the DNC is all-powerful and mighty and controls all levers of power. (Reality: quite the opposite …)

Same Here. And for folks saying “Aren’t you afraid of 4 more years of Trump”. I seee the only difference between the two are which donors get our tax dollars. — Democratic Primary Is Fraudulent (@ban_poli_bots) April 8, 2020

How ridiculous a human do you need to be to still claim there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans? We heard it in 2000: “There is no difference between George W. Bush an Al Gore.” Then we heard it in 2004, with John Kerry. 2008 was a respite, but funny enough, not because Barack Obama was a liberal champion. And then, of course, came 2016.

And still, people are going to claim “no difference”? I have one difference: Joe Biden won’t put another Neil Gorsuch or Brett Kavanaugh on the court. There are others, too, amazingly.

Hey @DNC, I won’t support your candidates for president. I won’t be part of your party. You’ve made it clear you don’t care about the youth vote and the things that are important to us. Fuck you. #DemExit — Nathan Gay🌹 (@ndillydalley) April 8, 2020

This notion that the DNC is this all-powerful being that decides these things is Trumpian/QAnon-level conspiracy theory mongering. They did nothing except organize the presidential debates. And nothing in those debates disadvantaged Sanders. Heck, Biden couldn’t even raise money! His campaign was perpetually broke, it had no field organization! And yet he won because Black voters rewarded him for his service to the first Black president. Right or wrong, that’s what happened, and the DNC literally had zero impact on that choice.

I’ve written about a dozen pieces on Sanders’ 30% campaign, how it never worked to build a majority coalition, and thus how it was destined to lose. That wasn’t imposed on Sanders by the DNC.

But even more broadly speaking, Sanders won the ideological debate, and Biden is running a far more progressive campaign as a result—even endorsing key Sanders and Elizabeth Warren plans. The key in the future is to look at progressives who are working toward building a majority coalition, like Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The party has moved dramatically leftward since the days of Howard Dean in the early-to-mid-2000s, when civil unions between gay couples were considered crazy, abortion rights were negotiable, and every Democrat was talking about how deeply to cut Social Security.

Now, how seriously should we take these people who would rather Trump pick RBG’s replacement and give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court? Let’s turn to Civiqs and look at Democratic numbers in Trump’s reelects:

Do you want President Trump to be re-elected in 2020?

PARTY ID BIDEN TRUMP OTHER DEMOCRATS 91 4 4 REPUBLICANS 3 91 6 INDEPENDENTS 41 43 16

For context, here are the exit poll results in 2016:

PARTY ID CLINTON TRUMP OTHER DEMOCRATS 89 8 3 REPUBLICANS 8 88 4 INDEPENDENTS 42 46 12

So Biden is already running ahead of Hillary Clinton among Democrats. And even assuming that some of those never-Biden a-holes now call themselves “independent,” Biden is still running slightly ahead there too. Even if you throw in margin-of-error float between two different polls (making apples-to-apples comparisons impossible), that still means that on balance, little has changed since 2016.

Does that mean that Biden is clear to go? Nope. He needs to make clear, in how he picks his VP (and maybe even early cabinet announcements) that he values and invites the party’s progressive wing to join his campaign. Even grabbing a few extra points among those Democrats and Independents in the “other” category could mean the different between victory and defeat.

But no matter what Biden does, the Democratic electorate spoke: Biden is the nominee, and the victor gets to write his own script. There is only so much we can do to influence his decisions moving forward.

What we can do is acknowledge that politics aren’t about what is ideal, but what is possible. And right now, protecting the liberal minority (and maybe even getting a majority!) is of utmost importance—perhaps the single most important thing we can do this election.

P.S. Liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 81. So perhaps we should be talking about Trump’s potential 7-2 majority.