Post Kavanaugh Confirmation: What you don’t want to hear?
All around me is that question: Where do we go from here? What is there to do in the face of the Kavanaugh confirmation? What is its meaning? My viewpoint is not that well received at this moment in time, but it is based on looking at the outcome from the point of view of Howard Zinn, and my own recognition of the waste of time anger is in this circumstance. Actually, I came to the conclusion about the waste of emotions around President Trump a few sensational headlines ago. I go with the perspective that President Trump is never talking to me or my tribe, but to his voters. Steve Bannon on Bill Maher further confirmed my decision when he said: “watch the signal, not the noise” in everything Trump does, and definitely what he does, not what he says. But here’s where my viewpoint comes in, and here is where it is not well received. The consistent, unwavering balls to the walls support of his candidate (or his action) are unqualified: relentless vocal support of the Kavanaugh confirmation had the GOP stay in line and deliver. Compare this to Senator Al Frankin (a very effective and productive Senator of Minnesota) called out by 51 Democratic women in Congress in the face of sexual assault charges. He didn’t have to quit without a hearing but evidently, the 51 women led by Nancy Pelosi moved him to that action. Given the nature of his crime, mimicking in his SNL most comic behavior that was seen in the glare of the MeToo movement-it was a loss to the voice he had gained in congressional hearings that has not been accounted for, or near replaced. A little hard to not have the question: what if Democrats instead of their righteous anger settled more into the focus of what the intention is, and what will serve that intention. The Republicans win because they do that. Over and over again.
SUNDAY NEWS
The Sunday news after the Kavanagh Confirmation had Republicans counting the achievements of Trump in terms of the game plan established when he was elected. He’s done very well was the judgment in delivering what he promised. I know, hard to take, not what we want to hear. As to his father’s inheritance which was the other hot news Sunday, a full spread in the NY Times Sunday gave facts and figures. But that story will go away. Wait and see. The system used by Fred Trump more than likely applies to most billionaires who have used the tax rules to their benefit and imbedded the specifics of their wealth accordingly. But more than anything I saw Sunday after the Kavanaugh Confirmation, Howard Zinn wrote a piece in 2005 about another Supreme Court Justice confirmation, that of Justice Roberts, called “Don’t Despair.” Very specifically he pointed out basically that the Supreme Court rules on maintaining the Constitution. It is not about morality or social justice to women and minorities or applying the greater good to all people, and we confuse their purpose and their role in government. He also describes then (2005) what applies now: the range of motion of the Supreme Court moves indolently to the right, then at a point to the left, then back to the right, and so on. He seems to say it is a response not the cause of the justice system.
ROE v WADE
Much has been said around the threat toward Roe v Wade with the Kavanaugh Confirmation. In my book Barefoot Frontrunners: Sex, Women & Power, I report that the day after Roe v Wade, 13 states immediately put up conditions and restrictions that limited access and opportunity to women to have use of Roe v Wade. Essentially before Roe v Wade, doctors were excluded from working with women to achieve the end of unwanted pregnancies. Rather the women who helped women with their birthing of children also helped women with achieving the loss of unwanted pregnancies. Nobody is for abortion, but what they are for is women to have reproductive rights to choose as they have throughout history and in all religions. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has stated repeatedly, the loss of a formalized and legal means to end unwanted pregnancies will only affect the most v vulnerable women, the poor and uneducated women will continue to pay as they always have with their bodies and with their lives process derailed.
HOWARD ZINN: "Don't despair..."
What there is to do, as Howard Zinn said in 2005, and as I interpret it, is to put our shoulders to the wheel and support the causes that best direct their actions to support the kind of world we want to live in. For me, that is the likes of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights who tirelessly and consistently work for the incarcerated to be returned to society with the ability to gain jobs and housing, and vote. Or, Planned Parenthood where people can get medical tests and care, and reproductive training and education, and the means to maintain their integrity around their sexualty. Just for starters, in these organizations and many others you support, regardless of the social or political climate, their work is never done and for those most vulnerable the means to sustain their lives.
WHAT TO DO - WHERE TO GO
So that’s or any forward action to what each of us feel is a missing piece in our society, that is where our response to the grind of watching the congressional hearings and its dismal results. VOTE. ENGAGE. Don’t despair. Shoulder the works of those making the world work the way you want it to.