It would be impossible to overstate the importance of this battle. It is nothing less than a fight for the soul of our democracy -- for what kind of country we want to live in.

"George W. Bush," Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, told me, "has made it clear, both through his public comments and through the judges he has nominated to appellate courts, that he is committed to advancing an ideological agenda that would roll back many of the social and legal gains of the last century."

According to Neas, who has been at the forefront of judicial battles since the fight against Robert Bork in 1987, this is not just about Roe vs. Wade -- it's also about turning the clock back to a time when states' rights and property rights trumped the protection of individual liberties and the ability of Congress to act in the common good on issues as far-ranging as civil rights enforcement, environmental protection, and worker health and safety.

This is not overheated partisan rhetoric but a realistic appraisal of the rulings handed down by the federal judges Bush has already appointed -- and of the written opinions of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court justices the president has cited as his models for future nominees to the high court. "Courting Disaster 2004," a study by the People for the American Way Foundation, found that adding just one or two Scalia/Thomas clones to the Supreme Court would put at risk more than 100 precedents and the legal protections they safeguard.

We're talking about the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action, worker protections, access to contraceptives and legal abortions, laws protecting our clean air and drinking water, and on and on.

Senate rules regarding filibusters are not something most Americans will find themselves discussing over a glass of eggnog during the holidays. But the impact these rules can have on our lives is staggering. And that must be made clear right now -- not when Chief Justice William Rehnquist resigns and Cheney and Frist team up to push the nuclear button. By then it will be much too late, and all incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid will be able to do is duck and cover. True leadership is being able to see not just the crisis staring you in the face but the one lurking just around the corner.

President Bush is pulling on his oversize Stetson and gearing up for battle. And here, unlike in Iraq, he's making sure his political troops have all the armor they need. The Democrats need to preemptively launch an all-out campaign to educate the American people about what is at stake in the coming assault on our democratic values.

If they succeed, they will have the public with them, even if it becomes necessary to resort to threats of mutually assured legislative destruction. Let's hope that's not what it will take to protect the Senate, the Constitution and over 65 years of hard-won social victories from the GOP's looming nuclear winter.

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