Though many conservatives and followers of Trump are currently rejoicing, this is a very sad time in our nation. For the embattled Kavanaugh appointment to the Supreme Court not only reflected poorly on our own government, it showed how low many Americans could stoop once tribal loyalties were challenged. The whole event has caused me to enter into an indefinite state of lividity.
The appointment showed that our government is a sham. The Republicans showed no intention of vetting Kavanaugh once he was nominated by Trump. From that point on, the Republicans, especially those in the Senate Judiciary Committee were determined to push Kavanaugh through the process faster than Obama had tried to fast-track the TPP when he was President. The Republican committee members hardly asked Kavanaugh a question despite his non-judicial combative demeanor and attitude shown toward those who did not believe that he was entitled to the position. And it is also despite the apparently credible testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and questions about Kavanaugh's past drinking. I am not sure if his gambling was ever an issue for the committee. Yes, some of those committee members may have shed crocodile tear or two for Ford. But most of their condolences were heaped upon Kavanaugh for having Ford's testimony even be included in the process.
But the committee's failure to properly vet Kavanaugh alone did not make the process a sham. It was the deliberately flawed FBI investigation that was called on to verify the testimonies given in the hearing. According to Keith Koegler, a longtime friend of Ford, 7 people, including himself, who knew about the alleged attack prior to Trump picking Kavanaugh and they were known to the Judiciary Committee and the FBI. And yet they were never contacted about being interviewed (click here for the source). In addition, neither Ford nor Kavanaugh were interviewed. Neither were those who knew about Kavanaugh's drinking, which is important because part his sworn testimony was about his drinking habits (click here for the source). Why were so many excluded from FBI questioning? It was because of the restrictions put on the FBI by the Senate Republicans and possibly the White House.
But what tops the totally flawed process is the fact that the follow-up FBI investigation is being kept from the public. Thus the old Republican men from the committee have guaranteed, at least for now, a total lack of accountability and transparency for their decisions. Let them growl and grumble as they will, they have kept the most important part of vetting Kavanaugh a secret.
Of course, we could also include the behavior of Trump who mocked, ridiculed, and misrepresented Ford during a rally in Mississippi (click here for the source). The same Trump who wants libel laws to be changed to possibly intimidate journalists who write stories that challenge his Administration's narrative felt free to mock Ford. And in doing so, he adds a new level of intimidation for those women who would be willing to report how they have been assaulted.
And then there is Trump's statement that today is a wonderful time for women while it is a very threatening time for men. No other statement could so easily show our President's tenuous relationship with reality, it is a relationship that he wants the nation to share.
Now normally, we could respond to such governmental malpractice by pledging to vote these people out. But not so fast my fellow people, the reaction to Ford from rank and file conservatives simply shows that many of them have become soulless while empowering the Republican party and while celebrating Capitalism's maximization of profits. Perhaps that is why so many conservatives were far more upset at the consensual relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky than they were at the possible sexual abuse of Christine Ford. Why the disparity? The answer is tribalism. That is because the perpetrator in the Clinton/Lewinsky case was a member of rival tribe, he was fair game. Kavanaugh was not.
And thus came the barrage of challenges to, or should we say against, Ford, some of which are important to answer but many of which showed no awareness of, let alone sensitivity to, what happens to a girl or woman when she is traumatized by sexual and/or physical assault. Our humanity is not demonstrated by how we treat those who belong to us. Rather our humanity is measured by how we treat those who belong to other, especially rival, groups. That criteria shows how cold and soulless many conservatives have become in their quest to help their Republican Party gain more and more power.
Conservative remarks I ran across criticized Ford for being mousey and liberal and for putting herself in the wrong situation at the wrong time, and for forgetting key details that many of us would easily forget on a good day. Other remarks trivialized what was done to her as being merely insignificant and not worthy of notifying the police. Still other remarks called the assault a stupid act of a young kid.
One more observation should be made here. Some, not all or even most, of the blame for this national tragedy rests with my fellow religiously conservative Christians. Why? It is because our approach to the Christian faith has produced some unforeseen yet toxic consequences not just on themselves, but on much of society. From our promoting of authoritarian personality types to a toxic patriarchy to an insularity and self-imposed isolation from sources of reality that come from nonconservatives, we have influenced many conservatives to follow our lead. Because we have yet to learn how to properly share society with those who do not share our faith, we have pushed the vulnerabilities that come with our approach to the faith onto many outside the faith.
And what is worse than that is that our insularity has led many of us to embrace the self-righteousness embraced by the Pharisee from the parable of the two men praying (click here for the parable). It's not that we have a monopoly on toxic and lethal self-righteousness, it is that because we claim to believe the Scriptures, we should know best not to follow down the chosen by that Pharisee. And yet, because we want to prove how much we deserve to rule over others, we follow a damnable path.
I knew that Kavanaugh was being less than honest when he kept trying to portray himself as an honorable boy scout who liked beer. How can someone honestly claim that he had always shown respect for women when he already admitted to drinking too much at times including those times when he was underage. Because I avoided following my father's struggles with alcoholism, I've always controlled my drinking. And yet, out of immaturity or selfishness or whatever else I have not always shown every woman I've met the respect she deserves. And I live with regret for those times. But here we should remember that most of the ways by which we show disrespect for women involve neither breaking the law nor violence. So how is it that a sometimes drunk Kavanaugh, who was once involved in an altercation in a bar, can say with a straight face that he has always shown respect for women? That makes almost as much sense as saying that being an alumi of a female classmate or playing Devil's Triangle had nothing to do with sex.
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