Politics: The Appalling Confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh

I hope that I can cover everything that I want to in this post and not leave anything out. There are a lot of reasons why Brett Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court right now. There are also very few, if any, reasons why he should be on it. What strikes me as horrifying is that he was a very unpopular nominee BEFORE the allegations against him. It can remind me of how Rod Blagojevich was the most unpopular governor in all the states before he was arrested and eventually impeached and then ousted from office. There’s a lot for me to talk about and I hope that I don’t forget to make any point that I want to.

Let’s start with the story of a person that I know. She was once kidnapped as a child. She was able to escape him, but he wasn’t ever caught or punished. If he suddenly was in the national news and was possibly had something to gain, I don’t think that she would hesitate to call him out on it. Now she doesn’t know this person’s name or much about him. But if he did show up in some way, I wouldn’t think that she would just let him continue to get away with the crime.

What doesn’t make sense to me is that so many people seem to think that if this alleged crime had happened so long ago, that it shouldn’t matter anymore. What is wrong with finally getting the justice that is deserved? Why shouldn’t someone be punished for a crime that happened a long time ago? I know that there are the stupid statutes of limitations on a lot of crimes. I would get rid of that if I could. How dare people think that crimes shouldn’t matter if they were a long time ago! You should be glad if people finally get punished. Would you still want Bill Cosby to be out on the streets doing standup after he raped so many people?

Some people also think that the accusers should have come forward sooner. Maybe it is just me, but I only recently memorized who the people on the US Supreme Court are. I have no idea who is on my state’s Supreme Court. I couldn’t tell you who is on the DC Circuit or any of the other circuits. People probably aren’t going to know who someone is at that level and it seem very unlikely that you would just randomly look those people up in the off chance that one of them might have tried to attack you back in high school.

This leads to one of the worst parts about the confirmation hearings. The moment that people came out and accused Brett of sexual misconduct, there was a quest to discredit the accusers. Honestly, I even thought at first that it was a last minute attempt to prevent him from serving on the Supreme Court. I don’t think that now. I think that we can believe Christine Ford, even if the rest of them might not be as believable in the end. I noticed that one of my friends on facebook said that hers was the only news source that showed both sides of the story (unlikely) and she only mentioned reasons why they could be fabricating things instead of why they could be right. That seemed to be so many people’s sole mission then was to prove them wrong.

Still, some might point out that the fourth woman who came forward has since admitted to lying for attention. But I find something fishy in this woman’s story relating to timing. Perhaps I could do some research to double check the information before. But I only remember there being THREE women who accused him of misconduct. Every time before he was confirmed, there was no mention of this fourth woman. Why would she only come forward after he is confirmed? Well, maybe if she were part of a quest to discredit the other women, she wouldn’t mind coming forward and casting doubts on their stories by making it seem that if one of them lied that the rest of them could be lying as well. I’ll have to check if anyone searched for this person before Brett was confirmed.

Christine admits that she has a fear of flying and people believe that she would never fly as a result of that fear. That’s got to be a stupid thing to do. If you fear flying and let that fear control your life, you will miss out on a lot of life experiences that you wouldn’t otherwise get. And if they think that her flying a lot means that she’s lying or otherwise untrustworthy. But she has a whole lot of courage to not only face her fear of flying but be that close to someone who did something bad to her, or at least tried to, allegedly.

Something that people won’t like to point out is the all hypocrisy that went on with nomination. The biggest hypocrite of them all, it seems, would be Lindsey Graham. He goes on a spiel at the confirmation hearing about how he helped sent Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the court, but I know that he was against Merrick Garland having hearings. That is hypocrisy at its finest. The Republican’ts refused to do hearing for him. But why is this relevant? Simple: every time there was a reasonable delay in Brett’s hearings, Republicans bitched and moaned about the stall tactics that the Democrats were doing as if there was no good reason for them. Why didn’t they release the documents on time? There was no good reason for it. Even if you think that they should have never confirmed Merrick, you’d then have to wonder why Republicans are now okay with being as quick as possible with a confirmation.

What I’ve come to realize is that there are often double standards in politics today. It seems that people will always excuse Republicans for their transgressions, but never do the same for the Democrats that have scandals. Look at Al Franken. He had a scandal and besides him, there were very few people who supported him. Meanwhile, when Roy Moore is accused of a whole lot worse things, people rush to defend him. Trump doesn’t seek forgiveness for anything he has done wrong morally, let people are willing to let it slide. Why are Democrats hung out to dry while Republicans are excused for everything they ever do wrong? Almost no one I can think of defended Rod Blagojevich after his scandals but to this day, people still defend Richard Nixon as if he didn’t hire people to dig up dirt on his opponent.

Within these horrible arguments in support of Brett, people can think that he’s just blamed for a thing that he didn’t do. (Well, it wasn’t a successful attempt, but I digress.) Those people are not nearly as bad as others. Some think that all men are like this. That’s not just flat out wrong, it is also sexist and horrifying to think. Can you imagine someone using boys will be boys to explain why their client is guilty? That’s your defense? That they did it but shouldn’t be punished since they wrongly think that everyone else does it? Rape is a heinous crime and saying that it should be excused is why we have terrible things like rape culture. Me Too was much needed and, it seems that Brett Kavanaugh is a giant step backwards.

Another reasoning that’s horribly wrong is that some people think that even if the allegations are true, he should still be allowed on the court. He tried to rape someone but should have a job that will last his whole life as a result? This isn’t a good thing to think.

Sadly, the Republicans of the Trump era are acting like a fraternity of reckless frat boys who want to do anything without fear of consequences. People think that it shouldn’t matter what you did in high school and that it shouldn’t affect you later in life. Those people might have done some regrettable things that they don’t want coming back to haunt them. Maybe it is something that is understandable, but I think not. If you did something wrong in the past, you should be okay with facing consequences for it someday. While we all have made mistakes in the past, I do not see why we shouldn’t own them and explain why what we did was wrong.

Something that I’ve heard about in the future is that once there is a Democrat, people might try to pack the court with more justices. This is a terrible idea. It is good that the plan that FDR had done didn’t work. The court should always have nine justices. People should realize that. If the next Democrat packs the court, what’s to prevent the next Republican from doing the same thing when they are in charge? Now it is bitter that Republican’ts have had the majority on the court since sometime in the 1970s. That is how they have too much power.

You know what I’ve come to realize? Every conservative justice on the Supreme Court is tainted in some way. Clarence Thomas was accused of sexual harassment. When the Supreme Court sided with Bush in Bush versus Gore, they tainted the nominees of Bush, those being Samuel Alito and the chief justice John Roberts. Of course, if they had sided with Gore, that would have tainted whoever he had put on the court. We all know that Neil Gorsuch has a stolen nominee. Of course, if Hilary Clinton had won, her nomination to the vacant seat could have been tainted instead. But it might not be considered that way. Brett was accused of way worse than Clarence was. And now Clarence has been there longer than any other justice.

Let’s not try to claim that presidents don’t have the authority to name justices. There have been a good number of presidents who only became that way since they ascended to the office. They would have had nominees that were just as valid as any other. John Adams successfully had a chief justice put on the court after he had lost reelection. Gerald Ford wasn’t even elected as the vice president and he still got someone on the court. You can’t actually complain that Bush had gotten his nominees without the popular vote when it didn’t happen until after winning reelection in 2004 with the popular vote. The fact is, the only wrongs that can happen are when you don’t vote on a nominee or a vacancy happens that shouldn’t because you are goading one of the current justices into retirement.

Some may just forever cling to their belief that Brett was wrongly accused. Well, sadly, that would not mean that the rumors about him will ever go away. There will always be people who think that he did it and always people who think that he didn’t regardless of what new evidence might come in the future. Look at Casey Anthony. People are convinced that she killed her child. It doesn’t matter that the court acquitted her. People are now convinced that she got away with murder. Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy. But many people don’t see it like that. Many people think that there is a conspiracy going on despite him being the likely suspect. The point is, if all of the women recanted, there would still be some people who would think that he’s guilty. Just like if it was somehow discovered that his accusers are right, there will still be people who don’t believe the evidence.

Many people think that Christine isn’t remembering things right. Trump downright mocked her at one of his many rallies. He thinks that she didn’t know when certain things happened. But there is a lot of things that she remembers about it. Psychologists even have proof that back up how her memory has worked. A well known phrase that I’ll shorten is how people always remember how you make them feel. I can remember a lot of negative events in my life with very few details as to what particular date it might have been. Some people can or otherwise do wind up with their memories of very negative events repressed and they can’t remember it at all. But I’m sure that anyone reading this post can remember at least one negative event in their lives, but no other details about it such as when it happened or where it was.

A key detail that should not be forgotten is that Christine never claimed that Brett had raped her. She claimed that Brett TRIED to rape her. She has never claimed to be raped. But it would seem that she is a victim of ATTEMPTED rape, which, it should be noted, is still a crime. That is where I feel that the news is unintentionally phrasing words poorly.

Whoever phases words poorly are the people who think that it is okay to call these accusers bimbos. Who first said this and decided that it should be okay? Bullying is not okay, which is why this country is spiraling into pure madness. I bet it was a FOX News crazy who first said it. See? I can do it too. But it isn’t nice or something that I should be saying, just labeling people as crazy. I wonder if these people fully understand what bimbo means. I also wonder why they think that I would side with their reasoning if they resort to such childlike behavior. How can a woman who has a PHD be a bimbo? Plus, it’s a bit disturbing that the official definition of bimbo mentions that the person is considered attractive. That’s not needed. Maybe this is what bimbo actually stands for:

Bold

Intelligent

Meaningful

Brave
Overcomer

Maybe that’s what bimbo means. But there is no need for insults of any kind. That includes if you believe Christine. You don’t need to send death threats to her or to someone like Susan Collins who voted for Brett. You shouldn’t be threatening anyone. You shouldn’t insult anyone. You shouldn’t falsely accuse someone of rape just because they think that Brett was a bad choice for the Supreme Court. There are better things to do with your time than constantly disagreeing with others.

You might wonder what Trump’s reaction to the whole scandal was. Well, it was varied and it all depended on when in the scandal it was. One of the most notable things that he did was try to distract us by lying and saying that China was trying to hack us. Well, I can also distract people, which I will with this Chinese paragraph.

我知道这是一个政治职位，而不是一个常规职位，但我仍然认为我会把这个中文段落放在其中，原因是你能理解你是否能够将其翻译成我拥有它的原始含义。 不要指望将来用英语，就像我打算为其他人做的那样。 虽然布雷特卡瓦诺的问题已经出现在国内，但特朗普试图通过声称中国试图破解选举来分散我们的注意力。 这是他在没有证据的情况下所说的许多事情之一。 但他甚至让迈克·彭斯（Mike Pence）谈论这些假想的黑客行为。 但是，我可以通过用中文写一段关于我不会因此而分心的方式来分散人们的注意力。 另外，如果你曾给我写过一封匿名信，请知道我是一个认为男性强奸犯应该被阉割的处女。 不要再给我发信。 滚蛋，找到更好的与时间有关的事情。

Something that I’ve heard come up even before he was confirmed was the talk that people might want to impeach Brett. I don’t yet know if this is a good idea. I don’t like impeachment if it simply one trying to get an unpopular person out of office. That’s not what impeachment is for. Is it possible that Brett has broken a law and deserves impeachment as a result? That is what some people are saying. They think that he committed perjury during the hearing. I do not yet know when an impeachment would happen. People would have to know that if Trump is still in charge, he would get to name the replacement. But there would also be issues with trying to get a liberal majority on the Supreme Court through his impeachment. Only one impeachment attempt has ever taken place against a justice. They survived it and remained on the court. And to show you how long ago it was, George Washington put this person on the court.

I do not know how extensive and detailed the FBI background checks are. But I do background checks for a living. I know how limited that they can be. Hopefully, the FBI has better ways of doing background checks than what I have done. Basically, I know just how limited that these things can be. They often tell you that the answer is 42, but you don’t know the question that leads to it. And you often hear in the news about some mass shooter who had no previous criminal record. Background checks won’t tell you who is a criminal if they were never charged with a crime.

I’d like to think that if a Democrat had appointed someone to the Supreme Court and then there were allegations of sexual misconduct against them, that would have been the end of the nomination. Instead, we got all of these people doing whatever they could to discredit the woman who accused him of misconduct. They are called liars, bimbos, and worse. People tried to establish a motive that was political or revenge. They failed with Christine at least. Even the woman who admitted to lying said it was to get attention, not because of a political motive. And it was incredibly weird to me that people kept thinking that this had to do with the Clintons. That is one of the reasons that he never should have been nominated. I wouldn’t want to see Robert Mueller on the Supreme Court as it would reopen old wounds. When allegations were brought against him, there should have been bipartisan backlash against him. But there wasn’t.

Ultimately, the dangers of rape culture in the world reminds me of a shocking moment that happened when I took Psychology of Woman back in college. There was a point where the professor asked the class if they knew someone who had been raped. This is a class of around 20 people. The majority of the class raised their hands. And that’s not even the shocking part. When asked if the person who did the rape was punished, only two people raised their hands. One was punished as the victim was a minor. The other was punished as he was a stranger to the victim. The rest were not punished at all. That’s disturbing. And what happened because of this confirmation will only make things worse. These women weren’t believed. And that often appears to be the case long before today anyways.

I think that’s all for this rant. I don’t think that I have many things to say about the Supreme Court and might not do as much about it next year in political posts unless a current or former justice dies. I think that Brett was a bad choice but will still give him a chance. He deserves at least that. I’d have to look up the history of the court to see who in the past might have been a worse justice. He seems like the worst one nominated that I know of. Something that I will do is think of other political posts for the future. I plan to do another memorial one next. You will see what some of the themes for other posts show up. Unless two more political posts appear in this blog before the year ends, I doubt that I will cover the Supreme Court again in a post for a bit. I do not know how many more of these you might see in the near future.