Sadly, I was not remotely surprised when Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the United States Supreme Court a mere three weeks ago on Friday, October 6th. Though I am supremely disappointed, the Senate’s final vote which came in at a meager 50/48 (just one green light too many in Kavanaugh’s favor) was precisely what I was expecting. I mean really, in a country where the president himself was accused of sexual assault by a whopping twenty-two women before he was elected, did we honestly think The Supreme Court was safe from the plague of the entitled white male? Of course not. But I’m still glad those of us with sense fought like hell against the onslaught of political debauchery that is unfortunately the long-standing norm in United States government.
I am ashamed that things like this are happening in the United States in 2018. Very few women hold positions of power in American government, some odd fifty-nine countries have had female leaders before the U.S., and men accused of committing heinous acts against women are consistently appointed to zenithal political offices. It is truly disheartening that a man who was unwilling to concede the potential effects of his alcoholism under oath and who boasted such egregious disrespect during a hearing was granted a seat in the most paramount judiciary body.
Simply put, Brett Kavanaugh lacks moral integrity. He did not earn his position on the Supreme Court honestly, but by finagling the caliber of his character and by kindling the Republican Party’s objectives. For these reasons, he does not deserve a seat governing any political body as he lacks the ethical merit and wherewithal required to approach the position professionally. “Supreme” by definition is supposed to mean the best, the most advanced, and the highest quality, or as Merriam Webster puts it, superior to all others. This just isn’t a word that describes Kavanaugh. In particular, there are three critical reasons our good ole drinking buddy Brett does not belong making decisions for American citizens for decades to come. One, he has been accused of sexual assault; two, his emotional stability under pressure is at best questionable; and three (perhaps most importantly), he is not trustworthy.
Photo credit to MPR News
So far, Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual assault by three different women: Deborah Ramirez, Julie Swetnick, and most notably, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Ramirez claims a young Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party his freshmen year at Yale while Swetnick alleges he was a mean, handsy drunk who would grope women and try to cop feels by shifting their clothing. Swetnick also recounts a chilling party scenario in which men waited in lines outside bedroom doors to take turns gang raping women. Swetnick claims she did not initially understand the reason for the strange lines, but later discovered their purpose when she herself was raped by more than one man in one of these same rooms. Although she concedes uncertainty that Kavanaugh specifically participated in her own assault, Swetnick vows that she did see him waiting in one of the lines previously, along with his pal Mark Judge.
Last, but not least, psychologist Dr. Blasey Ford not only came forward, but summoned the guts necessary to testify in Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. She provided explicit details about her assault under oath, named Kavanaugh as her primary attacker, and attested Mark Judge watched her assault as a complicit bystander. Ford testified that at a small party in Bethesda, Maryland in 1982, Kavanaugh, who was very intoxicated, intercepted her exiting the bathroom, pulled her into a bedroom across the hall, and forced himself on top of her. According to her testimony, Kavanaugh groped her, attempted to remove her clothes, held his hand over her mouth to prevent her from calling for help, and laughed. At the time, she was 15 and he was 17.
Dr. Blasey Ford explained that because she was wearing a full piece bathing suit under her clothes, Kavanaugh was prevented from successfully undressing her during the assault. In a firm, but wavering voice, she explained the effects of the trauma on her memory using tier three vocabulary relating to the brain and recounted a deep fear that Kavanaugh would accidentally suffocate her. She was adamant that this fear, combined with his pervasive laughter during the event, was what has had the most lasting effect on her life. After the hearing, Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote was delayed, the FBI underwent a brief and farcical investigation of Ford’s allegations, and naturally, no new information was found because the scope of the investigation was nonsensically limited.
Image via The New Yorker
However, despite the lack of repercussions Kavanaugh experienced, since Ford went public with her accusations, she has received numerous death threats and even had to relocate from her home to ensure her own safety. Many people have questioned the validity of her accusations as well as those of Ramirez and Swetnick, a phenomenon that surely contributed to the confirmation vote on September 6th. It seems that with the onset of the #MeToo movement, it has become standard to discredit victims by suggesting they are lying when their allegations interfere with powerful people’s reputations and political agendas, an issue which goes beyond ignorance and corruption. Suggesting that women who come forward with sexual assault claims are liars is inherently distrustful and misogynistic. As congresswoman Mazie Hirono told MSNBC, “…women do not sit around making these things up.” And if we look at statistics, we can see that’s true.
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women will be raped. In addition, only between 2-10% of reported rapes have been estimated to be false reports, which is the same percentage as for all other felonies. Furthermore, rape is considered to be the most underreported crime. There is an average of 293,066 rapes per year in the United States. That’s one every 107 seconds. Thus, a few simple computations poke holes in the idea that false allegations are a legitimate threat. There is not nearly as much reporting of rape as there is actual rape, which is why the notion that Dr. Ford lied about Kavanaugh’s assault isn’t likely. In fact, Dr. Ford attempted to relay her accusation before Kavanaugh was even nominated, which helps combat the idea that she had political motivations to impede the Republican Party’s chances for victory.
Nevertheless, even if somehow all three women’s reports were part of the 2-10% of false reports, it’s still blatantly clear Kavanaugh does not belong on the Supreme Court. Let’s consider his comportment during the hearing, which was at best contentious and elusory. Throughout the questioning process, Kavanaugh showed signs of agitation and belligerence, failing utterly to remain poised. He twisted his face into irritated expressions and spoke with an agitated tone. Instead of answering his peers with candor and diligence, he chose to be immature and defensive, asking senators if they drank beer and what they liked to drink. He also said “I like beer,” a record number of times in a political space, which seems like a declaration any sane person would have avoided considering the circumstances. Not only that, but Kavanaugh reacted as if the senators questioning him were trying to criminalize the consumption of beer rather than inquire what criminal events may have transpired from the excess consumption of alcohol.
Quite unbecomingly, Kavanaugh was outwardly indignant at the practice of investigating sexual assault rather than compliant or appreciative of the process. His aggressive body language and derisive word choice made him come off as sniveling and ill-mannered and his attitude was completely inappropriate for the setting. During the hearing, Kavanaugh stubbornly redirected the conversation when questions didn’t suit him and gave intentionally equivocal answers. He also directed accusations towards senators such that when Amy Klobuchar asked him if he ever blacked out, he replied like a petulant child, “I don’t know, have you?”
And his responses with other examiners were no better. When prosecutor Rachel Mitchell asked Kavanaugh how many drinks are too many, he replied as if she just asked him the sixty-four thousand dollar question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. “I don’t know,” he stuttered, flippantly. “Whatever the chart says, the blood alcohol chart.” Really, a 53 year-old man that doesn’t know the legal number of drinks he can have? Let’s be real. I have taught middle schoolers with more emotional fortitude than Kavanaugh. A man gearing up to be on the Supreme Court ought to have more sense and composure than to respond to serious inquiries regarding his moral compass than with the sassy bite of a teenager who missed curfew.
Photo credit to Pub in the Paddock
And that’s not all. Kavanaugh also showed his true colors when he forwent the honesty to answer examiners’ questions directly during the hearing. Instead, he opted for evasiveness, deliberately dancing around a clear “yes” or “no” on more than one occasion, like when Senator Dick Durbin asked if he would consent to an FBI investigation. Kavanaugh was less than forthright with his response, stated only that he is “innocent,” and rambled on about “welcoming whatever the committee wants to do.” Subsequently, when the senator inquired as to whether or not Kavanaugh feared the FBI may find truth to Ford’s testimony, Mr. “I like beer” called the question “phony.” Now, ever since I read the book in high school, I’ve never been able to hear the word “phony” without thinking of The Catcher in the Rye. Yet, Brett Kavanaugh is no Holden Caulfield and he’s certainly not concerned with protecting anyone’s innocence but his own. What’s happening here is more like Animal Farm, where even Kavanaugh’s own rhetoric mirrors the cunning semantics of Snowball. Think back to when Senator Kennedy asked if Ford’s accusations are true and Kavanaugh couldn’t even say “no.” As an alternative, he said, “They’re not accurate as to me.”
Senator Durbin wasn’t alone though; he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t get an honest answer out of Kavanaugh. When Senator William Leahy asked him if he was the drunken persona in Judge’s memoir (a book written during Judge’s recovery from alcoholism and in which he utilized Kavanaugh’s surname directly), Kavanaugh suggested the senator was “making fun” of a man with addiction. His shenanigans literally drove Leahy to the point of saying, “I am trying to get a straight answer from you under oath.” Which of course he couldn’t. And he couldn’t get one from Mark Judge either – because Kavanaugh didn’t want him there!
Image via Common Dreams
Oh, and since we’re already discussing deceit and evasion, let’s lift a looking glass to the rest of Kavanaugh’s track record. For example, his classmates at Yale seem to recall that he often drank to the point where he would stumble and there was no way he could remember what went on, yet he claims this is untrue. Their plural statements starkly contradict with his singular testimony that he never blacked out. So quick recap; Kavanaugh is not sure how many drinks quantify as too many, but he is sure he never blacked out. Yeah, that’s totally plausible. Not to mention, his yearbook also contains quite a few suspicious references. One even provides him with the endearing moniker “Beach Week Ralph Club’s Biggest Contributor.”
I think it goes without saying that if you’re regularly so intoxicated your body is screaming “Get this poison out of me!” into a toilet, your memory and sensory abilities have been acutely compromised.
Kavanaugh’s yearbook also references “devil’s triangle,” a sexual position he tried to explain into a game of “Quarters,” “100 kegs or bust,” and “Brett, have you boofed yet?” Now, although “boof” is a slang term generally used to refer to absorbing drugs through the anus (thank you, Urbandictionary) Kavanaugh insisted under oath that to him and his friends, it was a euphemism for passing gas. No need to fret, though. Classmates who attended Georgetown Prep disagreed with his unique, little definitions so most everyone still thinks he’s full of shit.
Plus, there’s another curious phrase scrawled in Kavanaugh’s yearbook we mustn’t forget: “Renate alumni.” The quote was accompanied by a cute little poem which went like this: “You need a date/and it’s getting late/don’t hesitate/to call Renate.” Ever the gentleman, Kavanaugh insisted this beautiful quatrain was merely a respectful tribute to a friend, but those of us who didn’t dull our neurons drinking so much beer know better. What’s worse? Kavanaugh’s refuting evidence against the insinuations about his sexual past is weaker than a kindergartener’s attention span. He claims he was a virgin throughout college and that the parties his accusers said he attended weren’t on his calendar – which he very oddly still has. No matter what Kavanaugh says though, both his peers and his own yearbook seem to paint a very different picture of his adolescence.
It seems like a no-brainer that after witnessing Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony and watching Kavanaugh literally shapeshift into a weasel to avoid answering questions, all, or at least most of the senators would have voted against his confirmation. The man has been accused of sexual assault, has zero judiciary demeanor, and is clearly falsehearted when it comes to admitting his shortcomings. Yet, despite all the reasons he does not belong, Republicans still railroaded him through the confirmation process like Wile E. Coyote barreling leg over leg over the edge of a cliff. And they have the gall to say Ford has political motives.
Though, in light of the dreary outcome of that fateful October 6th vote, all I can say is: I can’t wait to pony over to the polling station in November. Judge Kavanaugh, it might not be today; it might not be tomorrow, but like Evie said in The Mummy in 1999, “Nasty little fellows like you always get their comeuppance.” Matt Damon's portrayal of you in that SNL skit is only just the beginning.