I remember years ago, plunking down the $50 to watch a Mike Tyson match and getting myself all worked up about it only to see it end in 34 seconds. All hype. No fight. I can't help but be reminded of this today. In what was supposed to kick off the battle royale, President Trump opted to choose Judge Brett Kavanaugh to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court instead of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

I hate to be a spoilsport but Amy Coney Barrett was the candidate those who elected Trump most wanted. Now, to be clear, we MIGHT get favorable rulings from Kavanaugh on the issues of abortion and religious liberty and other issues. But let's be honest, we might not. I mean, didn't Trump become the favored candidate specifically because he was sooooo in your face. But this Kavanaugh pick wasn't in your face. This was a skirting of the most important issue of the day. We didn't just want an originalist. We wanted the OG.

This battle was supposed to be how the question of the day was going to be answered — and that question is whether you allowed to be a faithful Christian in public life. When Senator Diane Feinstein announced her concern last year that Catholic "dogma lived loudly" within her and Senator Dick Durbin doubled down on the same line of thinking, it became clear that they believed faithful Christians need not apply to the bench. When Barrett's name was included in a list of possible nominees, leftists freaked out because they feared she would overturn Roe v. Wade. Make no mistake, that's what this is all about. It's about the right to kill the unborn. But the attacks on Barrett were focused squarely on her faith. She belonged to a cult, they said. She's too extreme. She out of the mainstream! Wrong side of history!

The attacks on her promised to become more pointed, more harsh as time went on. Please recall that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blatantly said of pro-life Christians that "deep seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed." This is the battle that is being waged right now. It's just a matter of whether we're going to meet it. I ask you, isn't that the argument we wanted to have. Isn't that the argument this country needs to have. Right now it's a bit up in the air whether you're legally allowed to be a Christian and a business owner, never mind a public official. Trump just sidestepped that question.

It's possible in the end, this pick will be looked upon as brilliantly strategic because let's be honest, just about ALL the gains liberals have won occurred not through a national conversation but through judicial fiat. So shouldn't conservatives do exactly the same? Not really. Because the left is all about power. Christians seek to convert. You see the difference? The truth is that we will never win the abortion battle via judicial fiat, we can only win through argumentation and conversion. Overturning Roe is a beginning, not an end. For the left, Roe and Doe won the day. Their battle was won. When Roe is overturned, it's just the beginning for us. The real fight will then take place in the states and in the hearts and minds of regular people, not five black robed justices.

We wanted that battle to start at 9 p.m. last night, because a funny thing happens when the battle wages. Things get clarified. Remember when Mike Tyson was finally forced into a real fight with Evander Holyfield. He became so frustrated that he bit off his ear. Right in front of the country he bit off Evander Holyfield's ear and the world instantly knew who we was, not who we was pretending to be. I believe the radical leftists would've been so inflamed about Coney Barrett's nomination that they would've boldly revealed who they actually are, not who they are pretending to be. And I believe that many would've recoiled. I can't help but wonder if we just sidestepped a clarifying moment like that one, where the country was forced to acknowledge what the left had actually become, not who they pretend to be.

Some may call it strategy. I call it a missed opportunity.