WE'VE BEEN KAVANAUGHED

By R J Shulman

Once again, the American people have been had.  A truly despicable man is about to become one of the most powerful and important forces in American and perhaps planetary life for his life and like those horrified and bewildered by Trump's triumph in November 2016, they will ask questions as to how this crime against nature happened.  It happened because the Democrats and those not quite convinced that rich white male privilege is a good thing, took their eyes off the ball. 

When credible allegations of past sexual misconduct and drunken behavior became public about Kavanaugh, a decent person, regardless of whether all the alleged behavior was true, would remove themselves from consideration for a lifetime appointment to the bench of the highest Court in the land, because that position requires the holder to be above reproach.  But Kavanaugh is clearly not a decent person and clearly lacking any shame, so he doubled down to achieve a position of power by denying and lying.  And when directly questioned about possible past discretions, became hysterical, belligerent and his favorite, failing to answer but directing everyone’s attention to four shiny affidavits that he claimed, claimed he was not a serial rapist.  This tactic was successful, we never got the answers.

And we’ve gotten distracted again.  First, the Republicans and billionaires who are just dying to get a reliable fifth vote to solidify their oligarchic hold on America turned a job interview into a criminal trial.  The burden of proof to win in a court case is different than the burden of proof needed to get the job.  In the former, you have to be proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt and the latter, you have to be the best candidate who doesn’t even have a hint of anything at all wrong with you.  That's right, you can be turned down for the job you seek because of an unfortunate tweet you made at 2am or that ill-advised selfie you posted on Facebook, or just an answer to one interview question that could have been a bit better. 

Second, there are many reasons that Kavanaugh is not fit for the US Supreme Court, but the Republicans have once again distracted us with a shiny and juicy reason more easily questioned and more easily dismissed.  They have gotten the poor naïve opposition to concentrate on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s claims that when they were both young many years ago, Kavanaugh sexually attacked her.  While if true this behavior was inexcusable and is a reason to not get the judge job, this reason can easily and has been easily turned into a “he said she said” and dismissed.  They even trotted out a shiny, but kept private FBI investigation, that by its very nature will be inconclusive to say “see he is not the rapist she claims he was so let’s give him the job!” This ignores at least five other reasons that instantly disqualify him for the job. 

Those reasons are: 1) he evaded his job interview questions, 2) he lied when asked his job interview questions, 3) he got belligerent when asked his job interview questions, 4) he cried when asked his job interview questions (and we all know there is no crying in the Supreme Court, and 5) he showed he was a political operative hack who could not be partial when he blamed all his troubles on Clinton and the Dems during his job interview.  Last I looked a Supreme Court Justice is supposed to be impartial.  Just try doing those things on your next job interview and see how well that works out for you.

But once again, instead of attacking this privileged unrepentant brat of a political dirty tricks operative as being unfit to hold the job that requires the most public trust and the utmost ability to be compassionate and just, the American people will get to say, “at least there is no definitive proof that our newest Supreme Court Justice was a serial rapist.”.  We've been Kavanaughed.