1. President Donald Trump mocked Christine Blasey Ford last night during a rally. In doing so, he made fun of all women who have experienced the trauma of sexual assault.
2. He also wrote a new chapter in the story of his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. In openly disdaining Ford, and invoking supporters to laugh at her pain, the president tried turning the midterms into a referendum on #MeToo.
3. He’s wrong. November’s midterms, indeed all midterms, are a referendum of the party in control of the White House. This is the case. This has always been the case. I can think of one exception.
4. That was 2002 when the Republicans held the Congress while a GOP president prosecuted a response to Sept. 11. Other than that, midterms have historically been the result of an electorate restoring the balance of power.
5. Even so, some liberals (including me) might welcome the president’s dare. After all, the #MeToo movement has brought down men who had not previously been held accountable for their crimes.
6. Trump himself has been accused many times over of sexual assault. (At one point, even his former wife accused him of rape.)
7. But liberals embracing this fight should do so with open eyes. Remember that during the 2016 election, many of us could not fathom that a categorical fraud like Donald Trump would win the presidency.
8. But just enough people in just enough states were willing to overlook his conspicuous flaws to prevent a woman from taking power.
9. Granted, a congressional election is not a presidential election. Most indicators point strongly to Democratic gains in the House. But we should understand the possible trade offs. In fighting this fight, we could lose.
10. As feminist scholars will tell you, the interests of patriarchy find ways of lashing back. And Trump isn’t alone.
11. The premise of the Republican argument in favor of Kavanaugh is that his feelings are more important than Ford’s, that her experience, if true, is not all that big a deal, and that the Dems must be punished for perpetrating such a heinous smear on such a fine upstanding man.
12. This message will resonate with many voters, even those who had been thinking about voting Democratic before Ford came along.
13. That said, the temptation might be to dial down the gender rhetoric, to back away from conflict over Kavanaugh and #MeToo. Democrats should do no such thing.
14. Politics and morality are often the same thing. They are often separate things. But they should not be confused for each other.
15. Teddy White once said the only cures for bigotry are education and death. The Democrats can be proud of being the minority party educating the republic while waiting for the old guard to die off.
16. At the same time, the Democrats should name what is going on. Yes, it’s patriarchy. But I don’t think that idiom is helpful in moving public opinion. What happened last night should be seen in a context of what conservatism has become over the last decade.
17. It is no longer about slowing down progress, about preserving “tradition” or about maintaining “social cohesion.” It’s not about grievance anymore, though that term is now used widely. It’s not even about demeaning or harming others.
18. It’s about taking pleasure in other’s pain. Conservatism has become sadism.
19. Think about it. When asked to recall her strongest memory, Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee this: “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter. The uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense.”
20. Ford: “They were laughing with each other. I was underneath one of them while the two laughed—two friends having a really good time with one another.”
21. Fast forward to last night’s rally. Impersonating Ford, Trump said: “‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ ‘Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it?’ ‘I don’t know. But I had one beer. That’s the only thing I remember.’”
“I don’t remember,” he said repeatedly, mocking her trauma.
“I don’t remember,” he said repeatedly, mocking her trauma.
22. And the people laughed and laughed:
23. The upside to conservatism’s devolution might not be clear, but there is an upside, because it is polarizing. It tells some conservative white men, people who otherwise do not have a good reason to be fearful, to be scared out of their minds.
24. While most of these men (I suspect) are familiar with Trump’s rhetoric of cruelty, no sane and honest man, however conservative, would want that talk to rise to the highest levels of power.
25. While women have always had some reason to be fearful, men haven’t. But now men are seeing what happens when mobs descend into sadism.
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