Thread by @sfpelosi

Less than 9 hours into the #StopKavanaugh fight a skeptic already gave me the “don’t bother it’s over” posting in response to my call to action. Let’s take a moment to remember WHY we fight. 1/

We fight for our rights - for liberty and jusice and equality for all. We engage in politics to answer a call to service in our communities, in the streets, and in the corridors of power because we want to imprint our humanity on the laws that govern us all. 2/

We fight to engage people who want the freedom to live to love to serve without discrimination or apology. We fight against the untrammeled greed of corporate libertarians who want to exploit our labor, our native and sacred lands, and our ideas for profit over service. 3/

We fight for our values of empathy, resilience, science, patience, faith, cooperation and sacrifice that build a beloved community 4/

And when a Supreme Court Justice comes along who can shape our values into laws that govern us all, we fight to make sure that Justice reflects a vision of America where all are created equal and treated so under the law. 5/

Today we face a very steep climb: the White House that installed one Justice in a stolen seat - Neil Gorsuch for Merrick Garland - now has Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the former law clerk of retiring Justice Kennedy whose son lent the President a billion dollars though his bank. 6/

Trump’s preferred Justice will surely fulfill this President’s promise to overturn Roe v Wade, law for 45 years that codified women’s rights to choose the size and. timing of our families. Trump told us who he was- believe him and fight. 7/

Americans across the country - especially women - are looking to us and wondering whether we will fight for their rights and their healthcare and their equality or simply accede to the Republican control of Washington DC. 8/

Strategically, does it make sense to give in to Republican power and allow a Justice who praised the disssent in Roe v Wade, opposed the Affordable Care Act, and tried to block a young immigrant woman in government custody from accessing a legal abortion or to fight? 9/

Yes the right wing will spend millions selling Kavanaugh to swing state senators and abortion rights Republicans - should we fight back? Or should we view - as the skeptics do - any opposition as impotent grandstanding? I choose to fight. 10/

Will we lose? We might. But our great Justices have taught us the value of a fight. Thurgood Marshall advised us “We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust.” 11/ genius.com/Thurgood-marsh…

And of course our beloved Supreme Court Justice #NotoriousRBG Ruth Bader Ginsburg who reminds us that dissents speak to a future age - we need to lay the groundwork for the rulings we reason to be just; for the laws we want to pass; for the the future we want to build. 12/

So fight and dissent we must. Moreover, we have to lay out the flaws in Kavanaugh’s proscription for America and set forth an affirmative vision and candidates who will pass laws that codify our vision and values. Rally people and register them to VOTE. 13/

Because elections have consequences for lawmakers and judges. Today it’s Trump; November can be different. Remember, the first bill President Barack Obama signed was the Democratic Congress’ bipartisan bill to correct a Supreme Court injustice - the #LilyLedbetter Act. 14/

We must fight for our values; against a Supreme Court Justice who would roll back our rights and healthcare while holding Trump above the law to escape Mueller; for candidates who will pass just laws to make America more free and equal. FIGHT and DISSENT for #WhatsAtStake. 15/15