C’mon, Democrats: You’ve ‘ been took!’

For that matter, it’s even closer to what Denzel Washington said in “Malcolm X:” “You been had! You been took! You been hoodwinked!”

Say what you will about them, but if you woke the average GOP lawmaker up at 2 a.m. and asked what he believes, he would spout, as if on a recorded loop, the antitax, anti-government, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-black, anti-abortion creed so attractive to the mostly white, predominantly older and disproportionately male slice of the electorate that votes for them. Could you do that? I think not. Someone said on Twitter the other day that the Republicans are petrified of their base — and you are, too. There’s painful truth in that.

The Washington Post reported that you folded because you feared alienating voters in “conservative, largely white battleground states.”

You often seem terrified of alienating voters who do not embrace you, while discounting those — such as immigrants, African-Americans, LGBTQ and, yes, progressive whites — who do.

Got to dance with the one who brung ya, the saying goes. Yet you often seem intent on dancing with anyone but.

Frankly, you could stand to be more petrified of your own base — especially since the political left is having itself a moment unlike anything we’ve seen in almost 50 years. People are marching and raising money.

Upstarts are running for office. The left is galvanized by a fierce new energy.

A few years ago, the far right rode a wave just like this — i.e., the tea party — into power.

The GOP establishment never saw it coming. Will you? I’m no political strategist, so I will not offer strategic advice.

But I will note that strategy becomes easier once you settle in your own mind who you are, what you believe and what, exactly, you will fight for. Millions of us wonder. Get back to us when you know.