1. Now that Christine Blasey Ford has come forward to accuse Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape, the various strains of social justice that have been circling around the Senate confirmation hearing have come into focus. The Republicans are between a rock and a hard place.
2. The more they push to get Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, the more they will deepen the impression that the Republican Party does not care about anything but power. And they will do this right before midterm voters decide who’s going to control the US Congress.
3. If it were possible, before Ford’s allegations, for the Republicans to deny having any part of the systemic fraud and corruption eating the heart of American society, it will not be possible afterward. Confirming Kavanaugh is tantamount to a confession.
4. Consider the context. First this is the most unpopular president, and continues to get more unpopular even in bastion states like Wisconsin, where Scott Walker is running for his life, as is Ted Cruz, in Texas, against Beto O’Rourke.
5. All presidents suffer backlash in the middle of their first terms. It doesn’t matter who they are. Unpopular presidents suffer more intense backlash.
6. Trump’s unpopularity isn’t going to get better, because he doesn’t see himself as the president of all Americans. He sees himself as the president of all Republicans.
7. Second, this is the most unpopular president at least in part because he won despite confessing to sexual assault (the “Access Hollywood” tape); despite nearly 20 women coming forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct of some kind;
8. despite his paying off two women, all the while receiving the glowing endorsements of evangelical Christian leaders who had, a mere two decades prior, wholeheartedly endorsed the impeachment of a Democratic president for far lesser alleged crimes.
9. Third, this unpopularity on account of his treatment of women is part of a larger moment in which thousands and thousands of women have come forward to say that, yes, they too have been victims of sexual assault.
10. The numbers have been so overwhelming, and the news reports have been so unending, that no one, not even the most hardened bro, can maintain the illusion that sexual assault is the result of a few bad apples. Sexual assault is not an individual issue. It’s societal.
11. Fourth, #Metoo comes on the heels of a passel of social justice moments bent on exposing systemic fraud and corruption, whether its police departments that kill unarmed black men without cause;
12. whether it’s regulators who look the other way while the big banks get bigger and the rich oligarchs get richer; whether it’s shooting massacres that kill our children; whether it’s Catholic bishops who cover up serial sexual predation;
13. whether it’s fossil-fuel firms that pollute the air, land and water; whether it’s global firms that hold wages so low that hard work is meaningless; whether it’s politicians who use their privilege to cheat the markets.
14. Everywhere you look you see corruption. It’s even bringing down the president’s closest aides and advisors. But until this week, few had reason to make the connection between the rot eating the heart of American society and Brett Kavanaugh.
15. Them came Christine Blasey Ford. In this climate, Ford’s allegations are being given the benefit of the doubt.
16. Lending more credence to her claim is her demand that the FBI investigate her allegations before she testifies, just as the FBI investigated Anita Hill’s allegations before she testified years ago against Clarence Thomas. Seems fair, no?
17. No, Republicans said. They want balance, not justice.
18. They want Ford’s testimony in writing by Friday and her public testimony by Monday. No investigation. No independent establishment of the facts. Why?
19. Because they want the public to decide between he said-she said, and they are banking on the public siding with Kavanaugh just enough to rationalize confirming his nomination.
20. As I said Wednesday, that’s risky, and a steep price to pay. stoehr.substack.com/p/christine-bl…
21. As it is, the Republicans are merely pretending to care about women’s rights, or women generally. If they ram Kavanaugh through without establishing the truth of the matter,
22. they are going to lose even young conservative women alienated by a Republican Party that has confessed to never caring about anything but power.
Men’s power.
Men’s power.
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