Okay, then here’s the question today for Democratic office holders: How many people supporting Democratic policies need to get out in the streets before you raise some hell against the GOP in Congress?

I read today that Rex Tillerson (R/ExxonMobil) will be gliding into his post as Trump’s Secretary of State. And that despite years of GOP procedural stalling in the Senate led by Mitch McConnell and a “stolen” supreme court seat that could have been Obama nominee Merrick Garland’s. President Trump’s cabinet of horror picks may eventually even have some Democratic support. Therefore my thinking is that the number of people needed in the streets for Democratic office holders to show some backbone may well exceed the hundreds of thousands that already turned out for recent demonstrations

But, perhaps one of the polling/statistics wonky number gurus that so successfully reassured us that Hillary couldn’t lose to Trump could work up a useful workable formula to calculate what it would take. It might be helpful for them to design a standardized ratio showing the number of demonstrators per individual senator needed for that office holder to confidently take a stand.

Call it: the People in the Street (PITS) to Senator/Congressman Backbone (SCB) analytical formula. The rating could be formulated to be individualized and broken down by state by individual Senators and for Congressmen by district.  For example Senator “X” from a majority “red” state might need a higher ratio of demonstrators in the street.

I imagine in a safe “Blue” state, for a recently re-elected  Senator or Congressman,  the scientific ratio might be as low as 500-1,000 PITS to achieve 1 SCB. This would mean  500-1,000 demonstrators would be all it would take for a liberal-leaning Senator to show some spine and vote no or even filibuster a Trump nominee. A “Red” state Senator coming up for re-election would need double or even triple the number of people in the streets, perhaps as high as 3,000 or 5,000 PITS to gain one SCB.

I’d bet Five Thirty Eight and Nate Silver or maybe The Princeton Election Consortium might tackle it now that the election has ended. Well, maybe after the Super Bowl and Oscar predictions.

Until that formula is available I have to nod in agreement with Charlie Pierce, who says: Filibuster the Damn Supreme Court Nominee! But imagine, as Pierce dreams, the great feeling of satisfaction it would give to the Democratic base to have Neil Gorsuch get left twisting in the wind the way Merrick Garland did. What chance would you give that happening – a thousand to one odds?