If you have not read THIS IS THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SPEECH I WOULD DEARLY LOVE TO HEAR FROM JUDGE KAVANAUGH ON THURSDAY, please take a look at it first. This diary is a response to that one.
Why would anybody dearly love to hear this speech?
This speech is horrendous.
The issue at hand here is much bigger than what was or was not considered a crime at the time, or whether certain behavior was widely practiced at the time.
Buying and selling people was wrong, even when it was “legal” and widely practiced.
The people being bought and sold always knew it was wrong.
A person engaged in the transportation and selling of human slaves (as opposed to animal slaves?) in the year 1650 was not technically guilty of a crime. If the people being trafficked had been given the choice, they would not choose a slaver to be in a position of authority deciding their fate and their future. They would not choose a slaver to be a decision maker on the topic of whether slavery should remain legal, and whether slaves have rights to control the use of their bodies.
Marital rape, otherwise known as rape, is wrong, even where it is technically legal and widely practiced.
Date rape, otherwise known as rape, is wrong, even though it is technically legal and widely practiced. “Gentle force” (vomit—where did *that* term come from?) otherwise known as sexual assault, is wrong, whether there is penetration or not, and whether drugs are involved or not (reminder: alcohol is a drug).
The women being raped and assaulted always knew it was wrong.
If the women being raped and assaulted, and the women fearing rape because they had seen its effect on their sisters, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, and friends, were given the choice, they would not choose a rapist or sexual assaulter deciding their fate and their future. They would not choose a rapist or sexual assaulter to be a decision maker on the topic of whether rape should remain legal, and whether women have rights to control the use of their bodies.
The men with the power to decide what is “legal” have always been able to override the wishes of less powerful people who object to their behavior.
Up until now.
This same demographic of men is absolutely terrified these days. They perceive (accurately) they are losing their power to write laws that automatically place their needs above the needs of women, blacks, LGBTQ, immigrants, minority religions, and other groups who never had the ability to challenge their hegemony before. They were so desperate to elect DJT in an attempt to roll back that clock, that they accepted help from a hostile foreign power in order to do it.
The people who had always objected to their behavior are making an unprecedented level of noise and having an unprecedented level of influence. They are running for office. And winning.
A day of reckoning is coming.
Republicons and those who identify with patriarchal values are frightened by the prospect of the #BigBlueWave, and the #WaveOfWomen scares them even more. In their minds they drag us down to their level and imagine we will do to them what they did to us. So they are reacting like wounded animals backed into a corner—throwing out the rule book, fighting tooth and nail, abandoning even the norms they themselves created and followed when it benefited them, and generally declaring war on the truth. All’s fair in love and war, and they are moiling in a mire of hatred for us.
Now to specific quotes from the proposed “speech”.
I think my friend Mark Judge saw that things were getting out of hand, and he jumped on us to disrupt my actions.
We weren’t there and don’t know whether that is true, but it is unlikely that this is the case. It is more likely that Judge jumped on to join in.
If Mark Judge did jump on to disrupt Kavanaugh’s actions, Judge is even more in the wrong for not coming forward and saying: “I attempted to prevent this attack and my actions are what allowed Blasey Ford to escape.”
I am sorry for my actions of 35 years ago. I am sorry that my actions changed your sense of well being.
Kavanaugh could not deliver that line with any credibility. He’s not sorry. He’s especially not sorry his actions changed her sense of well being. He’s only sorry he got caught. And he won’t even be sorry he got caught if he ends up getting confirmed anyway.
You will not find any examples of bad behavior by me in the last 30 years.
We don’t know that yet.
Child labor laws, for example, are pretty much universally accepted in the United States. No one is advocating anymore that young children should be allowed to quit school and work in factories.
Don’t be too sure about that one, either. Look who is trying to move the Overton window on child labor.
the fact that many women feel threatened by men and male privilege
The fact that many women ARE under threat by men and male privilege. FIFY.
Since women and not men are the ones who can become pregnant as the result of sexual activity, a women should have the right to choose to terminate her pregnancy. I believe that in 50 to 100 years, this right will be generally accepted.
50 to 100 years? This right is generally accepted right now.
In my previous confirmation hearings, I refused to commit whether I thought Roe vs. Wade was correctly decided. Let me now say clearly that I believe it was indeed correctly decided.
Kavanaugh could not deliver that line with any credibility. If that were what he believed, he would never have been nominated.
I leave it to this committee and to the Senate to consider my past behavior as a teen, the life I have led as an adult, my qualifications as a jurist, and my new understanding of women’s rights.
If his accusers are to be believed, his behavior as a teen was deplorable. As an adult he has cooperated with a “what happens at GPrep stays at GPrep” cover up of these actions. He has also participated in other morally reprehensible decisions such as support of John Yoo and the torture memos. Just last year he showed a total lack of respect for the autonomy of women, forcing a 17 year old to be pregnant against her will: a reflection of his attitude towards females in general, people in detention in general, and abortion care in particular. He lied in his confirmation hearings about receiving stolen property, which should be disqualifying all by itself.
It is up to you to decide if you want me to be a Supreme Court justice.
How I wish it were truly up to me to decide, since for me that decision is easy, whether or not Kavanaugh gives anything like that proposed speech if he testifies before the Judiciary Committee again.
there’ll be time enough for counting when the dealing’s done
Previous entries in the True Blue Report commentary series.