Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring. Donald Trump gets to pick his successor. While the Senate engages in a debate about hypocrisy and whether or not to bring that nomination to the floor for a vote, nothing less than the character and identity of America is at stake.

So, yeah, we are pretty screwed at the moment. November is truly our only shot to stop the bleeding.

The only way out is for opposition to remain united. Problem is, progressives spend as much time arguing with each other as they do attacking the right. Then there are people who simply remain in the dark because of the usual pitiful excuses “I have a job,” or “I’m just trying to raise my famly,” and other such tripe. Or they have no confidence in government (a conservative goal all along).

Lower your expectations. Let not the perfect be the mortal enemy of the good (or, in this case, the “not horrifyingly bad”). America is in a traumatic state. Our democracy is bleeding. When treating a trauma patient, you must first stop the bleeding. Trying to repair the broken bones before you stem the flow of blood and you will wind up with a dead patient.

And if you manage to save the patient, and splint those broken bones, don’t expect the patient to run a fucking sprint any time soon. Healing takes time.

Forget “Medicare for all.” We are staring down the barrel of “Medicare for none.”

Forget funding for Planned Parenthood, we are facing the criminalization of abortion in multiple states.

Until progressives wise up about those, and other matters of ideological purity, we will continue to be outmaneuvered by the right.

So I don’t care if the candidate is the next coming of Bernie Sanders or a guy like Conor Lamb. We need every single blue seat we can get.

First stop the bleeding.