I can’t speak for everyone, but among my family and friends who voted for Trump (I did not, and many of them would admit only in secret that they were going to), it kept coming down to fears that a Clinton victory might end religious freedom in this country for good. Can anyone say they didn’t have a point, when basic, previously unquestioned freedoms like the right not to have to personally participate in or recommend abortion are, incredibly, just one justice away from disappearing?

Look back for a moment at Barrett’s confirmation hearing for the 7th Circuit. She was given an inquisition by Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Dianne “The Dogma” Feinstein over her popery, in what turned out to be one of the Democrats’ worst own-goals since Trump’s election. With the cover of anonymity afforded by liberal journalists, Senate Democrats also viciously attacked Barrett in the press for her association with my old high school and the Christian group that founded it. (It’s definitely one of the ten best schools in all Indiana, and quite affordable for middle class families, at least when I went there.)

In a much bigger, higher-profile version of that same fight, Democrats and especially their supporters will be even less capable of controlling their hostility and anger.