The difference between intelligent people and progressives is that intelligent people recognize institutions naturally will ebb and flow between center-left and center-right positions over time. We see this constantly in the Executive and Legislative branches (except for the 40+ year period when the Democrats held Congress after WWII, which was to my mind an anomaly), but not so much in the Judiciary because so many federal judges have lifetime appointments. So the Judiciary changes only gradually, one seat at a time if that, while Congress and the Executive oscillate wildly by comparison.
Progressives, by contrast, believe that every tilt to the left is (or should be) permanent, as a clear vindication of their slow march through the institutions. This explains things like Reid’s nuclear option in blowing up the filibuster in 2013, and the general leftist conniption fit when the House flipped in 2010, and the Senate went back to the GOP in 2014 (both as a direct result of Congress forcing Obamacare on the public in 2010). Of course progressives think they will never lose the House again after they won it two years ago on the back of lies, deceits, and vote fraud. And their absolute snit over Trump’s appointment of a conservative to replace the liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court is yet another example of progressive inability to see that, like the tides, political fortunes of the two parties ebb and flow, and have done throughout history.
This may also have something to do with progressive assurances that the seas will rise if we do nothing about climate change. They simply cannot believe in anything that doesn’t fit their narrative.