Why Republicans Are Fighting so Hard for Brett Kavanaugh

[babylonsister]

http://prospect.org/article/why-republicans-are-fighting-so-hard-brett-kavanaugh

Why Republicans Are Fighting so Hard for Brett Kavanaugh
Paul Waldman
September 23, 2018
They could easily replace him with a nominee who would vote exactly the same way on the Supreme Court. But they won't.

snip//

But more than that, to defend Kavanaugh is to defend a certain order to the world. It's one where a man like him—wealthy parents, prep school education, on to Yale, working for Ken Starr and George W. Bush, then on to a judgeship in preparation for his ascent to the high court—is the rightful wielder of power and influence. It's one where women know how they're supposed to act and to whom they're supposed to defer. And if they're sexually assaulted, they're supposed to just deal with it. As evangelical leader Franklin Graham said, "Well, there wasn't a crime that was committed. These are two teenagers, and it's obvious that she said no and he respected it and walked away."

OK, so maybe that's not actually what she says happened. But what's the alternative to dismissing Ford? To harm the career of so deserving a man as Brett Kavanaugh? What has the world come to?

That fear is why, for instance, Representative Steve King lamented that squadrons of vengeful women armed with false accusations will now be ready to shoot down any Supreme Court nominee unfortunate enough to carry a Y chromosome. "How can you disprove something like that?" King asked plaintively. "Which means, if that's the new standard, no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again." Indeed, things have already gotten out of hand—of the 113 Supreme Court justices we've had since 1789, a mere 109 have been men!

Or why this group of Republican women told CNN that Ford is probably a liar, and even if she isn't, so what? "We're talking about a 17-year-old boy in high school with testosterone running high," said one. "Tell me, what boy hasn't done this in high school?" That's a sentiment we've found everywhere: Boys will be boys. Who didn't attempt to rape someone when they were a teenager, amirite? As one GOP lawyer with ties to the White House told Politico, "If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried." I can certainly think of one man who should be worried, though the fact that a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct and he is on tape bragging about his ability to sexually assault women didn't prevent him from becoming president of the United States.

But we are now called to give sensitive consideration to men's fear that the women they thought they were free to use as they wished might now have the power to point a finger of accusation toward the top of the ladder, and be taken seriously. This must be stopped before things really get out of hand.

So Republicans are making their stand with Brett Kavanaugh, even in the face of grave political danger. That danger is not that the hearings this week to hear Christine Ford's charges will prove that Kavanaugh is the kind of man, or at least was the kind of teenager, who covers women's mouths to muffle their screams while he attempts to remove their clothes. Definitive proof, at this late date, will not be possible to obtain, no matter how credible Ford's testimony. There will always be enough ambiguity for Republicans to say that they believe him, or at the very least that since we can't know for sure he must be elevated to the Supreme Court.

No, the danger lies in women's anger and what it will do to the GOP, not just in this November's election but beyond. Let's not forget that even before Kavanaugh was nominated to the court, record numbers of women, mostly Democrats, were running for office this year. The gender gap is becoming a chasm; in a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, Democrats led on the question of whether respondents planned to vote for a Democrat or Republican for Congress by one point among men, but by 25 points among women. Let's also not forget that when Brett Kavanaugh (or whoever replaces him) gets to the Supreme Court, one of the first orders of business for the newly empowered conservative majority will be to take away women's reproductive rights, either by overturning Roe v. Wade outright or gutting it to the point where it continues to exist in name only.

At the heart of it all, of course, lies Donald Trump, whose misogyny knows no bounds. "The antipathy to Trump from women—college-educated, white, suburban women—transcends anything I've ever seen in politics," said veteran GOP consultant Alex Castellanos recently.

As Republicans defend Brett Kavanaugh, they only make their political problem more acute. Every new attack on Ford and defense of the nominee only pours gasoline on the fire of women's rage at this president and this party. Republicans aren't blind to the problem, which is why they suggested they might bring in a female outside counsel to conduct the questioning so as to avoid the spectacle of 11 men interrogating her.

Even if they do that, something tells me that women, and the men who think the patriarchal system could use some updating, won't be fooled either way. But Republicans will fight this battle for Kavanaugh's sake, and for the sake of all he represents. No matter the cost.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. They have to defend the patriarchy. nt

[QC]

2. Exactly. He is a member of their class.

So much is about class, but we're not supposed to talk about that.

[MarcA]

3. +1,000 n/t

[Raster]

4. Another reason the Congressional Rethuglicans* are all in...

...is because of Kavanope's previous rulings and writings about expanding the Presidential power and limiting a sitting POTUS's exposure to equal justice under the law. In other words, tRump* is hoping that Kavanope is his "get out of jail free" justice on the SCOTUS.

[empedocles]

5. Let's not forget, the primary reason K was Chosen BY traitortrump himself, over 3 oher choices,

was to protect, no matter what, - trump

[Caliman73]

6. They are locked in. This is conservatism.

When people say they are conservative, my first question is always, "What are you trying to conserve?" That is usually followed by a bunch of platitudes like, "Traditional values" or "Family Values" or "Personal Responsibility". That usually leads to more questions like, "Whose traditions?", "Can you define family values and tell me how long those particular values have been practiced?" The conversation doesn't usually last very long and usually ends with, "liberals....." or "libtards" or some other derogatory statement.

Like I said though, Republicans are locked in. Their policies since at very least Theodore Roosevelt's time, have been to protect the wealth of powerful men, almost exclusively of White men of a certain religious background (though not quite as important as the skin color). Other than the "Radical Republicans" in the Antebellum and post Civil War period, Republicans have NEVER been out front on any civil rights issue. Roosevelt was a Republican, but he was a progressive and he broke with the Republican Party after they found out that he had an agenda that wanted to protect the average citizen (still White) from the excesses of wealth.

Their real constituency is shrinking every day, even adding religious zealots in the 60's and picking off the racists in the Democratic South starting with the Nixon administration. Conservatives ultimately are about protecting the power of wealth White men. They are able to recruit other groups to join them by putting forth other grievance based or nostalgia policies, but those are mainly just pawns to make sure just enough people are there to help them steal elections.

They will get louder and more dangerous as their time continues to wind down.

[smirkymonkey]

7. K&R

[lark]

8. Yes, there's that and it's important to them to keep the privilege of treating women as chatel.

However, that's not the main point. The main point is he will personally protect the orange assmouth & the entire Repug party from being charged with conspiracy against America with a hostile foreign power and treason. He has no values at all, not even a shred, except protecting rw oligarchs. When Clinton was president, OK with subpoena and charge a sitting president. As soon as a Repug is in office, wow a legal principle (ha) is turned on it's head and right is left and up is down, and president can commit treason but can't be charged while in office. He is their "ft out of jail free" card and that is the one true reason they are standing by him.