1. I’d like to speak plainly to people (men, mostly) who say they are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Christine Blasey Ford. All they are doing, they say, is questioning the timing of her allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
2. First, if you are questioning the timing of her allegations, you are not giving Ford the benefit of the doubt. Giving someone the benefit of the doubt means reserving judgment until the relevant facts are known, and then coming to reasonable conclusion based on those facts.
3. You are not keeping an open mind about criminal allegations if you are questioning anything before relevant facts are established.
4. I’ll get to the timing part but it’s worth hanging on this point for a moment. Ford is asking that the FBI independently verify her claims. That’s not something a false accuser does.
5. A false accuser would want the Republicans to do what they are doing, which is avoiding the independent verification of relevant facts. A false accuser is not focused on revealing the truth.
6. A false accuser has other priorities that probably have their inspiration in mental illness, trauma or actual malicious intent.
7. Chuck Grassley has said some nonsense about Ford’s claims now being public. Therefore, the FBI has no role, he said. Again, that’s nonsense. The FBI can reopen an background check on Kavanaugh and have it done in three days.
8. Given the Republicans' refusal to request an audit of Ford’s claim, that means they don’t want facts getting in the way of casting doubt on her, which is the only credible political strategy they have at this point.
9. As long as they keep her allegations shrouded in a shadow of doubt, they can rationalize to the public confirmation of Kavanaugh
10. Now to the timing. This is the go-to strategy of anyone casting doubt on victims of sexual misconduct. It couldn’t have been so bad, the thinking goes, because the victim didn’t alert the authorities right away.
11. If she had alerted the authorities right way, maybe there would be something to the allegations. She didn’t, so there’s nothing to the allegations. This is precisely what the president did this morning:
12. I’ll leave to the experts the many valid reasons why victims of sexual crimes don’t report their victimhood. For my purposes, I want to point out something in plain English: The imminent nomination of a Supreme Court justice is perfect timing.
13. Be serious. This is a lifetime appointment. This man will sit in judgment on a range of controversial legal, ethical and moral issues, including issues most relevant to the most intimate aspects of the lives of millions.
14. Even if Ford were an “opportunist,” as she has been called, so what? There is democratic value in knowing whether a nominee committed crimes. He should be vetted. Let the Ford investigation be part of that.
15. Lastly, I want to talk about the most sexist part of the knee-jerk reaction to casting doubt on victims of sexual crimes. They are accused of being “opportunists.” If it were as bad as they say, they would have called the police. Since they didn’t, it can’t be that bad.
16. So when they bring it up now, instead of 30 years ago, victims are opportunistically trying to sabotage men’s careers, good standing, or whatever.
17. Here we need to remember the cost of seizing this so-called “opportunity.” Ford has received death threats, her email accounts have been hacked, and she has been driven “into hiding” according to reporting by the Times.
18. This is extreme, but the social cost of coming forward is common. So the question must be: the opportunity to do what?
19. Why is this the most sexist part? Because it presumes a woman’s interests begin and end with a man’s interests, whether they are good or bad. By this way of thinking, death threats are nothing to a woman who really wants to cut a man down.
20. In this view, not only is the woman sadistic, she’s insane—which is par for the course.
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