OPINION: We already know the truth that matters: America can do a lot better than Brett Kavanaugh | Will Bunch
The issues that hinge on whether the
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* Democratic pushback to
The irresistible force of the #MeToo movement colliding with the entrenched deny-everything-admit-nothing "bro culture" of
That dramatic spin is understandable, but it's also what worries me about how such a pivotal week for the future of America is going to play out. The temptation will be to frame Monday's hearing as the trial of
And if this biased jury -- stacked heavily with men of a certain age -- decides that Kavanaugh or his allies can cast even the smallest shadow of doubt on Ford's story, this 53-year-old hardball political operative by way of his all-male elite prep school and beer-chugging Yale fraternity will become the 114th justice of the
I believe Ford. Her story -- that a drunken 17-year Kavanaugh and his friend dragged her into a bedroom during a party, turned up the music, and held her down while Kavanaugh covered her mouth so she couldn't scream as they groped her and tried to take off her clothes before she escaped -- has many of the hallmarks of a real-life traumatic event, and not a political fabrication. Contemporaneous notes show she told her marriage counselor about it in 2012 and shared details with a friend during the #MeToo explosion of 2017, all long before the
But while faith in Ford's story is shared by many of us, we need to be clear-eyed -- that it's unlikely that her account from the early 1980s will come with enough evidence that would ever convict Kavanaugh of a crime in an American court. When the judge testifies Monday -- almost certainly with the deny-deny-deny strategy that has well-served the president who appointed him, coupled with some righteous indignation to echo Thomas' infamous line about "a high-tech lynching" -- Republican senators will try to cling to some variation of "not proven," not even because they like Kavanaugh but they're so close to their goal of a conservative, pro-business high court for generations to come.
But this isn't a trial, and seeing it as such would be a huge mistake. The senators we've tasked with deciding whether Kavanaugh belongs on the
We've already seen enough of Kavanaugh to answer that question beyond a reasonable doubt.
He does not.
Whatever happened that night 35 years ago, Kavanaugh has shown us nothing to suggest that he's changed very much from the young man who soaked himself in a toxic male environment that flowered at Yale (where he joined a hard-drinking all-male club called Truth and Courage but was known (apologies for the relevant language) as "Tits and Clit" that in the words of a classmate "was organized around getting coeds into bed"), who bragged about his hard-drinking law-school exploits in a speech to the right-wing
That's the kind of warped mind-set that leads to a judge seeking to deny a 17-year migrant in government custody her right to an abortion (controlling the body of a 17-year-old? ... how ironic) and it's the kind of mind-set that has made so many women so fearful that a
Is there really a seat on the esteemed bench inhabited by the likes of
On Monday, Kavanaugh is going to ask America to believe him. But why should we believe Kavanaugh when his Republican allies have gone to such unprecedented lengths to cover up his paper trail and to shield his true record from the American public? Why should we believe him when he refuses to explain glaring discrepancies in his personal finances? More important, why should America believe Kavanaugh when there's already mounting evidence that he has misled senators and arguably lied under oath about his past actions -- both in his 2006 confirmation for the federal appeals court and again in his
His go-to strategy for almost everything has been to deny, deflect, and cover up. That might win you a "not guilty" verdict in a felony trial. It's not the type of behavior that should win you a lifetime elevation to the Supremes.
In making the right political decision on Kavanaugh, senators have an opportunity to show they understand this unique moment. In the great awakening that has been the #MeToo movement, millions of American women have listened to
If history is any guide, there's a good chance that senators will grab onto this American moment -- and fumble it away. But in 2018 they have a chance to get it right. When Kavanaugh speaks on Monday, listen not only to what he says but how he says it.
The question isn't just what he did as a teenager but whether he's learned anything important in the years since then. Has
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