Yesterday I
watched most of the televised examination of Dr Christine Blasey Ford and then
of Brett Kavanagh. She was so entirely believable that I could not help but
think that Kavanagh would have no chance to upset the effect that she had made.
However, I didn’t count on the power of the old men’s club. Kavanagh was
clearly schooled by Trump’s assertions after watching his interview on Fox news
several days ago, that Kavanagh had been too soft, that he ought to be angry
and to hit back. Kavanagh did exactly that. Supported by Republican senator
Lindsay Graham when he began to flag in his efforts, Kavanagh railed against
the Democratic ‘plan’ to destroy him, his reputation, and his family in revenge
for his involvement in the Ken Starr investigation into Bill Clinton’s affairs.
He roared, and he wept. Look what you are doing to me and my family!
Democratic
senators pressed him on his unwillingness to ask for a deeper investigation
into the accusations made against him – specifically to have his ‘co-accused’
Mark Judge examined, and/or to request an FBI investigation into the various
allegations made against him, to fully clear his name. Because he was obviously beginning to lose it, the Republicans chose to rid themselves of the woman prosecutor
who had been engaged to question both him and Dr Ford. Stepping into the
breach, Lindsay Graham delivered an impassioned diatribe against the ‘shameful,’
the ‘despicable’ attempts by his Democratic colleagues to destroy this fine man
who had served the country for so many years. Graham's energy and that of subsequent
Republican senators who took their cue from Graham, put new life into Kavanagh,
emboldening him to stand his ground against the calls to say that he would
be happy to have a deeper investigation made into the contradictory statements
being made by the two ‘witnesses,’ himself and Christine Ford.
Trump was
pleased. Kavanagh had taken a page out of his own book – when backed into a
corner, come out roaring, make accusations of your own, and change the
narrative. The Republican senators went off to confer, announcing soon
afterward that they would be putting the issue to a vote in their committee this
morning. A victory for them, a victory for Trump. A considerable slap in the
face for due process, for decency, for truth, and sadly, for the already entangled
politics of our neighbours to the south.
I woke up
about 4:30 this morning, troubled by the powerful tide of hope raised by Dr Ford’s
courageous and compelling witness, hope almost annihilated in the path of a
cabal of men determined to run roughshod over the story and energy of not just
that particular woman, but of all the women and indeed of all the men
who had supported the telling of her story and who sincerely want a polity
based upon decency and the whole truth of the things that even “good people,”
hard-working, civic-minded people, can be capable of.
I remember
how in the 1960s so much of the hope and enthusiasm engendered by leaders like
JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bob Kennedy, and Malcolm X was dashed into
cynicism as one by one they were assassinated. That’s how it is: don’t be a sap
and think that idealism has a place in one’s life. Just get on with things and
carve out your own piece of the pie. Cynicism is an easy place to head for when
disappointment looms. But regardless of the final decisions regarding Kavanagh’s
elevation to the Supreme Court, this story is not over. Millions were witness
to yesterday’s events. Take-aways will be shaped by each person’s already
determined views, to be sure. But importantly, that dramatic theatre was played
out within the current context of far-greater openness to listen to and honour
the experiences of women like Dr Christine Blasey Ford. The Republican senators and Trump may
have their way, but the stain of what was enacted in that committee room will
not be easily expunged as was the stain of the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill
hearings.
