The Best Quora Answer on the Question - What are the Outcomes of the Brett Kavanaugh Hearing? Submitted by Quoran Allen Lobo A man who chooses to throw rocks at a crocodile in the river had better first make sure that he won’t ever have to then swim in those waters. I say these words now in a thoroughly amoral assessment of this matter in a manner which some might term as Machiavellian. But I speak here not of matters of morality but of stark reality. And it is something which I feel both compelled to say and which I find surprising that it hasn’t been mentioned by commentators either here or even in the media. The Democrats need to do everything in their power to see that Kavanaugh does not get elected to the Supreme Court. Fair means or foul. Pull out all stops. Because this isn’t a contest anymore, it is a war. Because they have now made a sworn and implacable enemy out of a man who is not only likely to be seated on one of the most powerful positions in the land but then stay in that seat of power for a long time to come, for at least a quarter of a century. It is not a wise thing to do. If you must choose to attack and then wound a powerful man, make sure that you do it in a manner which is both absolute and fatal. Because if Kavanaugh now gets on that bench, there will be hell to pay for them. For a long time. The last time they did this to Clarence Thomas more than a quarter of a century ago, they are paying for it to this very day. And what they have done to Kavanaugh now makes the treatment accorded to Thomas look like a picnic in the park! No, I don’t care what you think a judge “ought to be like” like how the journalist dumdums a dime a dozen go yakking about it ever since Kavanaugh let it rip in his hearing. You know, there is a damn good reason why public opinion of journalists today is even lower than that of politicians. Let that sink in for a moment. The profession of journalism has gone down the toilet. It won’t stop them from running their mouths off anyway. Nobody. Cares. Judges are humans after all with all of the emotions that come along with it. Not some devices which can just be reset, you know. And it is something which personally speaking I am very careful about in my own job - to think ten times before making enemies out of potentially powerful men because I know how long such memories can last. You think this man is ever going to forget or forgive what they have put him and his family through over the last couple of weeks? And once again let me repeat that is a cold assessment not of morality or justice but about the stark reality of how things work. If he gets confirmed, the bleeding simply won’t stop for the Democrats. But the pain won’t end even if Kavanaugh isn’t confirmed. Because of some of the other souls on the list ready to step in. There has already been much talk about Amy Coney Barrett waiting in the wings. They will find dirt on her. No question about it whatsoever. She is a woman, so the gender card will be flipped over. But there are other cards in the deck still left. Her being white, the fact that she is religious. It won’t be easy to paint her as thoroughly immoral or a plain imbecile but it can be done. If a man like Kavanaugh can be projected as a predatory rapist, then a woman like Coney Barrett can be portrayed as a wanton adulteress. But another name which hasn’t been mentioned from that shortlist by Trump is Amul Thapar. That dog is wicked smart, seemingly takes no prisoners and is supposedly conservative enough that his father said that his son almost stopped talking to him when the latter voted for Obama. And that they think that Kavanaugh is bad! It may very well turn out that Trump will say - “You want war? Good! I’ll give you one you simply won’t believe. And I’ll now put the most conservative cat on that bench whom I can possibly find!” We know that he isn’t of the forgiving kind and holds grudges for a very long time. And that he has neither shame nor morality whatsoever in doing whatever it takes to win, to wreak utter vengeance on his adversaries even if that means playing dirtier than a pig in a pool of shit. As ‘macho’ as it may sound, you do not earn the enmity of such vindictive men who are in a position of incredible power. Just don’t. Ask Obama. Those insults he peppered Trump with at that dinner went a long way towards the utter obliteration of everything that he had worked so hard to build for eight whole years, even as this fellow now takes a flamethrower systematically to every major pillar of his legacy. Then god help Democrat souls when the two oldest justices on the bench (Breyer and Ginsburg) who happen to be on the left flank then retire if Trump is still in power. If even one of them calls it quits and the GOP still has the Senate, it will be GAME OVER for the Democrats. The Democrats simply don’t seem to have thought this thing through thoroughly, carefully and coldly enough in terms of the risks which it holds. They are busy making enemies out of some very powerful men at a reckless speed that might very well prove fatal for them in political terms. Never mind the media furor that most are now focused on. Because all of this passion on both sides will subside. But what the Democrats chose to do in the last two weeks may well be something which they end up paying a very high price for, and for a long time to come. Like the analogy at the beginning of my answer, they’ve now pelted a crocodile with all of the rocks they had. Now they had better hope that they are not thrown in to swim in those dark waters with that thoroughly enraged and powerful enemy.