Kavanaugh Confirmation is Another Battle in the Republican War on Women
<snip>The contentious fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination escalated in the past week as Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, came forward to accuse Kavanaugh of attempting to sexually assault her at a high school party in suburban Maryland 36 years ago. The accusation was a bombshell that interrupted what many thought was an inevitable confirmation and inflamed an already divisive debate over gender inequality and patriarchal power. Now, with Ford weighing an invitation to testify before the Senate -- while requesting an FBI investigation into her allegations in advance -- Kavanaugh’s confirmation has become anyone’s guess. The only thing certain is that the political and social reverberations of this episode will be felt for years to come.
Republican reactions to Ford’s accusation has been predictably disgusting. Immediately pundits began questioning her integrity, calling her an opportunist or suggesting she should be punished for filing a false charge. In a repulsive act befitting his repulsive family, Donald Trump Jr. took to the internet to make fun of the victim’s trauma. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, went so far as to say even if the accusations were true, he imagined that Kavanaugh would still be confirmed, as Hatch and his Senate colleagues would look at the man he’d become.
For decades now the Republican Party has waged what some have termed a “War on Women” that has sought to slow social progress and continue patriarchal control over the destinies and bodies of American women. This battle between progressive and conservative ideals has more or less defined the past few decades of politics, and has reached a boiling point of sorts with the current #MeToo Movement, a cultural revolution focused on exposing patriarchal misdeeds and hastening gender equality.
That movement is in direct opposition to the Republican "pro-life" reactionary agenda, a set of ideals that seems particularly vested in opposing any move to change the patriarchal or racial status quo. There have been continual clashes between Republicans and women over any number of pertinent issues, including abortion, birth control, equal pay and sexual harassment, but very rarely has the battle been so public and explosive as with the Senate Judiciary Committee's potential confrontation with Christine Blasey Ford.<snip>
Link:
https://www.salon.com/2018/09/19/the-brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-battle-another-skirmish-in-the-republican-war-on-women/
