It certainly is "political." Of course individuals can and should be evaluated. This experience is very upsetting and I felt the need to vent my frustration. In a few hours this story will advance with likely repercussions no matter what.Some would take it back to Anita Hill's participation in an earlier hearing. I watched a documentary on that and felt her opinion didn't count for very much. Most likely at least some of those in power felt it was not as important as getting a conservative on the bench. Clarence Thomas was replacing a liberal black man, Thurgood Marshall. They could have backed away and brought a different conservative to the Supreme Court, but the optics would not have been as good. As it turns out Thomas is one of the most conservative judges. Times have changed, but it still seems the male viewpoint is still dominant.
A key part of the Republican strategy is to tie their economic agenda (which favors the top 1%) to a social agenda that appeals to enough one issue voters so they will overlook their own economic self interest. Gun rights is one element. Gay rights is another element. I would say the most critical element is abortion. To us progressives these concerns plus their economic agenda seem not in the best interest of the 99%. It seems that significant parts of the 1% are more liberal, but they put their money into divisive issues as they know that will get them more favorable economics such as lower taxes and less regulations.
Gay rights is emotional. Ironically some of the gay haters actually inter-act with gays, but ones who are still in the closet. As more gays open the closet more of us realize they are not so bad or even abnormal. From a distance, their increased acceptance is threatening to some.
Abortion is a repulsive thing for almost everyone. Everyone has the right to refuse an abortion for themselves and can use persuasive powers on friends and family. That is not good enough for many who want to impose their feelings on everyone else. Some concede a few exceptions and in fact when it hits them they will arrange it under cover. I, too see it as murder, but I do not think it is my right to forbid someone else when they will suffer consequences. To me the Republican conservatives are doing lots of counter productive things. Contraception needs to be more accessible and sex education taught in school to significantly reduce abortion.
One other part of their strategy is to appeal to racist sentiments. It helps to distract from the fact their policies hurt the poor. They suggest blacks or Hispanics are the cause of the poor white man, not automation or outsourcing labour. Everyone loses.
The social issues are most reflected in the Supreme Court. They are the ones who legalized abortion and same sex marriages. They also have given economic benefits to the very rich. Probably the most effective pledge by Donald Trump was that he would put right thinking justices on the Supreme Court going so far as to promise future nominees would come from a list approved by conservatives. I recall even a promise to overcome Roe v Wade.
When Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly it was only hours before Mitch McConnell declared that no Supreme Court nominations would be allowed so close to an election. He had the power and realized this would appeal to the conservative base. Barrack Obama selected Merrick Garland who was considered a moderate judge and older than the usual nominee. It has become a strategy for both parties to pick younger judges as their influence will last longer. These concessions made no difference to the Republicans.
In the run-up to the election it appeared the Democrats would indeed have a new mandate, but Trump realized the importance of the Supreme Court to his base and made that part of his platform. A lot of other factors were critical to the result that to many diminish the justice of the election. As mentioned in other blogs the Russians interfered, James Comey made some poorly timed and unnecessary announcements, gerrymandering and electoral College. Earlier thoughts on that: http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2017/07/trump-enablers.html
To replace Scalia without too much fuss Neil Gorsuch was confirmed. He immediately adopted some conservative positions.
Anthony Kennedy decided he wanted to retire. One detail not mentioned before is that his son worked for Deutsch Bank and had been the one that approved millions of dollars in loans to Donald Trump when most banks turned him down. Apparently they offered to nominate Kavanaugh who had been one of Kennedy's clerks.
Trump has the power and sought advice on how best to fulfill his Supreme Court pledge. Many names came up, but apparently Trump was struck by the fact that Brett Kavanaugh believed presidential powers could be expanded. Trump had his own legal jeopardy and likely would want as much of a cushion as possible.
The Republicans certainly recognized the Supreme Court as a political objective. They realized that the midterm elections were closing in and some recognized if they could put another young conservative on the court it would be appreciated by their base. They also recognized there was a good chance they would lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly (but not likely) the Senate. Some, such as Mitch McConnell felt that another conservative judge would be a worthy legacy.
A few details upsetting to progressives were uncovered (such as Kavanaugh's participation in the Bill Clinton impeachment and the George W Bush torture memos), but not enough for the Republicans to think of another conservative candidate. A lot of controversy has been announced regarding the time it took for Christine Blasey Ford's accusation to reach the attention of the Senate judiciary committee. Timing did complicate the matter, but the Republicans in my opinion reacted unseemly. Sexual assault victims want to forget their ordeal and in this case confidentiality was wanted. Eventually she realized the Supreme Court decision would be made without the information.
The Republicans realized it would look bad if old white men questioned the victim so they hired an experienced woman prosecutor. It is hard to be sure, but her strategy seemed to be to develop inconsistencies in the accusation. It didn't work. When it came time to question Kavanaugh they sidelined their expert and each made an attack not so much of Ford's testimony as on the Democrats' ethics.
Many thought an FBI investigation would be a logical way to eliminate doubts, but that was resisted by the Republicans. Lindsay Graham yelled his disgust with the process.
I don't know what will happen over the next few hours, nor do I know what the truth really is. My own politics suggests America is headed for problems one way or another.
What I suspect happened is that Brett Kavanaugh did get so drunk he doesn't remember what he did. He took great pains to say he did not black out and did not forget what happened while he drank. He would have been better to have admitted the possibility that he did something regrettable while drunk and would like to make amends. No one has accused him of actual rape. My opinion might be sexist, but I believe we should all get second chances.
From my reading of her facial and body movements and her words it was hard not to believe Christine Blasey Ford. I make no claims of infallibility. Not so likely she mixed him up with another person. She said what she remembered most that Kavanaugh and his friend laughed at her expense.
In this additional test of his acceptability Kavanaugh did not do well. If he was truly innocent or at least thought he was, it was natural for him to be angry. He undercut his previous claims of not being political by his charges of Democrat trickery. He even suggested it was revenge for the Clintons.
Many good points were made by the Democratic interrogators. I was impressed by Kamala Harris who pointed out that the Democrats had gone through the confirmation process with Neil Gorsuch and that the two men paralleled each other in many regards except there were no sexual allegations in the former case. Of course the Democrats had their own agenda, but they have fallen far behind the Republican power structure.
One way or another the Republicans are likely to get their Supreme Court and many of the people who voted for it will suffer, but probably blame someone else. Future nominations will be even more political. Trump and other Republicans suggested that future candidates would be reluctant to go through the process and this I admit is true.
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