I suppose I am going to break many promises with myself on this one.
I promised myself I would avoid getting political too often on this blog. I also promised myself I wouldn’t allow myself to be dragged into the Kavanaugh debate which has gripped the nation’s capital for the past month.
Sometimes, though, promises are indeed made to be broken. Sometimes my values override my promises, and I must pivot to abide by them.
Today is one of those days.
I have stated before that I am a fiscal Republican, an old school style conservative in the vein of the late John McCain. I am not a fan of Trump or his followers. I am also distinctly non-religious and lean left now on many social issues, so I am not particularly fond of the stances taken by the religious side of the GOP. But at the same time, my value system rarely finds itself in concert with the Democratic Party.
So the introduction of Brett Kavanaugh as Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court was abit of an enigma for me. On one hand, Kavanaugh would be replacing a former nominee of a Republican administration, and I think the current Supreme Court is well-balanced for all sides. On the other hand, Kavanaugh is distinctly more conservative than Judge Anthony Kennedy, the justice he is tabbed to replace. His addition to the court may unbalance things too far to the right.
And that was before the circus began.
The sexual assault allegations on the face of them do not disqualify Kavanaugh for the position. That sounds horrible, but that’s only because you can’t make that statement without everyone hearing it adding in their own emotional response to it. I can think of few worse things a human being can do to another than to rape them or sexually assault them. I feel that emotion too.
But when I removed that response and looked at it rationally, the first two alleged acts to be made public sounded like those of drunk and stupid teenagers, and the third allegation was based on the flimsiest of flimsiest of witnesses, backed by a media-hog attorney and an accuser with questionable validity. As Senator Lindsey Graham pointed out in the hearing for the first accuser last week, there were no allegations against Kavanaugh in more than three decades of public life since he became a judge.
It was absolutely clear to me that the Democrats were playing this out for all its worth, recognizing the importance of Kavanaugh’s placement on the court and what it meant for left-leaning issues. They were playing a slimy political game and destroying a man at the same time, with little care for the consequences.
When I viewed the allegations in a rational context, they seemed very lacking to me. Toss on the machinations and manipulations of a party desperate to stop Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and I found little reason to support the attacks on the man, regardless of whether or not I felt he was worthy of the position.
So why am I now against his confirmation?
Simple. It appears he lied. And even worse, he allegedly lied about being a manipulator. And both of those acts go stridently against what I believe in.
And the worst crime of all was this: it was inanely stupid.
I can live with a judge who is too conservative. I can live with a man nominated by a terrible President. I can live with a man who made mistakes in his youth.
I cannot abide by a stupid, dishonest and manipulative justice for the Supreme Court. That is a bridge too far.
When Kavanaugh reportedly lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about whether he knew about the latest allegations against him, he proclaimed himself unworthy of the chair he was seeking.
This country needs justices who hold themselves more accountable than an ever vigilant and watchful public. Considering the tensions of our current times, that is a high standard, but these nine positions have imbued within them a legacy of fairness and non-partisanship.
And if Kavanaugh is daft enough to attempt to manipulate former friends’ recollections about a wedding, and then lie about doing so under oath, then he lacks the requisite wisdom or moral equanimity for the job.
Such as he should not be the next justice of the Supreme Court.
Okay, I am done being political. For now. I promise.