by Lynn Mandaville
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh is a win for the Republican Party and the greatest achievement of his own political career. President Donald Trump has called the confirmation a win for his administration.In spite of these two claims of victory, it is my contention that there are only losers all over the place after this Washington political circus has struck its tents and left the American people to clean up the debris and the donkey and elephant manure.
The two people who have most obviously lost are Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Ford will be tainted with the brush of doubt about whether or not her memory serves her correctly about a life-changing event. Kavanaugh will be tainted by that same brush of doubt regarding his adamant denial of ever having engaged in such conduct. He will also be doubted about his possible problem with alcohol, then and now, and whether or not he may have suffered blackout drunks in his youth.
The Republican Party has lost because many women (and sympathetic men) now believe, not that the party hates women, but, worse, that the party just plain doesn’t care about them.
The Democratic Party has lost because they are now considered by some to disregard the “innocent until proven guilty” protection of law, and to “hate the Constitution” for seeming to deny that protection to the judicial nominee.
Both parties have lost because both appear to put party loyalties, interests and agendas above what is right for the American people and the impartiality of the Supreme Court. Those up for re-election appear to be only politically expedient.
The Supreme Court has lost because it will now be suspect of partisan bias in the handing down of certain, future decisions instead of being revered as the non-partisan arbiter of our Constitution.
The American people have lost, because despite the efforts of Jeff Flake and Chris Coons to bring unity, compromise and reason to the runaway train the proceedings had become, our citizenry is now more divided than ever over a very complicated alignment of disparate issues.
In my mind, the hearings preceding the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court should have concentrated solely on his qualifications as a jurist. I cannot say this with any certainty, but had everyone been privy to all the documentation regarding Kavanaugh’s history, as had been initially requested, the circus may never have arrived. Had Christine Ford’s letter not been leaked, her identity been protected as per her request, the circus may never have arrived.
As it happened, the waters became a too muddied to concentrate on some of the important issues the circus brought to light.
In the first ring, Kavanaugh’s outrage (warranted or not is debatable), belligerence, and intemperate conduct.
In the second ring, Kavanaugh’s apparent partisanship and vengefulness in responding to the accusations against him.
In the third ring, a not unreasonable concern that Kavanaugh had, and may still have, a problem with alcohol abuse.
The audience, both in the hearing room and at home in front of their computers and television sets, did not concentrate on what was going on in the three rings. Their attention was divided and clouded by the over-stimulation of so much going on.
The result was that no one person, no one point of view, no pertinent aspect of that last public hearing was given the unemotional, unbiased attention it deserved.
Today the confirmation is a done deal.
I, for one, am willing to believe that Kavanaugh’s reputation as a fair jurist will prevail. I am hopeful that his experience as the star of the circus will not color his decisions in the future. I am willing to believe that his expression of “what goes around comes around” was an aberration, an overemotional response, by a Yale University College and Law School graduate who worked his butt off, to accusations that set his blood boiling.
It’s easy for me, in my home out in the desert, away from the Washington bubble, to say that it’s time for everyone to sit back, take a whole lot of deep breaths, and take a wait-and-see attitude while the dust settles around this fall’s season of Supreme Court decisions.
Talk of a Kavanaugh impeachment and removal from the bench will only keep the dust swirling and the division widening.
The best course of action, in my humble but correct opinion, is for each of us to become intensely informed about the people who seek to serve us after the midterm election. Regardless of your political bias, become informed, register to vote, and, damn it, VOTE!
If you don’t think that voting matters, and you don’t take advantage of that precious right, you are no more than the debris swirling around our feet now that the circus has left town.
To Readers: an addendum to how Ford has lost in this debacle. According to an article in The Hill this morning (10/8/18) Ford and her family cannot return home due to an increasing volume of death threats against her. She is also experiencing distress over President Trump’s public mocking in his rallies. One might also believe Kavanaugh may be receiving threats, though I haven’t seen any reliable reporting. Some Americans are terribly out of control where it comes to reasonable response to recent events. Each of us should try to temper such outrage in ourselves or our acquaintances as we engage in conversation over the outcome of the hearings. Peace.