Here is the speech I would love to hear from Judge Kavanaugh to the Senate Judiciary Committee:
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I would like to address the accusations that have been brought against me for my behavior as a high school and college student 30 years ago.
First, I would like to say that I am being judged in 2018 for actions that occurred in the early 1980s. I would like to discuss the fairness of that by looking at a couple of historical examples.
Consider the slave trade. A person buying or selling another human being in 2018 would be guilty of a crime. There are laws against human trafficking. But in, say, the year 1650, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was legal and regulated by many governments. In fact, taking prisoners into slavery as a result of war with another country or tribe was standard operating procedure in most of the world. So the question: was a person engaged in the transportation and selling of human slaves in the year 1650 guilty of a crime?
Pause for a minute and fast forward 200 years to the year 1850. By this time most European countries had outlawed slavery. There was much agitation in the United States by abolitionist groups to try to end slavery. It was clear to anyone paying attention that the moral case for maintaining slavery in the United States had collapsed. People and states supporting slavery were trying to defend it against an increasing outcry that slavery was immoral.
The relevant question for us today: Was a slave trader in 1850 more guilty of a crime than a slave trader 200 years earlier, in 1650? I think that’s a tough question to answer.
A second example: Marital rape, defined as sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without the spouse’s consent. Today, in most but not all countries, it is considered to be a crime, a form of domestic violence and sexual abuse. In the United States, a man can be convicted of assault and battery for raping his wife. But the process of criminalizing spousal rape occurred over many years. There were advocates for the change of the law, but it was not until the 1970s that spousal rape was made a crime in some states and not until 1993 that it was finally a crime in all states.
So, the same relevant question as before. By the 1970s, most every man in the United States knew that sexual violence against his wife was wrong. So is a man who forcibly raped his wife in 1970 more guilty of a crime than a man who forcibly raped his wife in 1870? In both 1870 and 1970, the act of spousal rape was not against the law, but the norms of society had definitely changed.
Now, to my actions of 30 years ago.
In the privileged, male-dominated culture in which I was raised, many boys like me felt like we were free take what we wanted from girls and use what we considered “gentle force” if we weren’t getting what we wanted. And of course, the restraints of using “gentle force” were shifted when alcohol was added to the situation. We were boys, learning to be men, or at least learning to be what we thought men were supposed to be.
But, the last two weeks have forced me to rethink much of my past. Looking at my two historical examples, I am sad and ashamed to admit that my actions had much in common with the slave traders of 1850 and the spousal abusers of 1970.
In the early 1980s, there were plenty of boys who acted the same way that I did. I felt that my actions had the approval people around me. But by the early 1980s, with the feminist movement in full swing, there were enough examples of better behavior that I could have followed. Should have followed. I had every opportunity to treat girls differently and more respectfully. I regret that I didn’t behave up to the standards that were easily visible to me. Plenty of boys in the 1980s learned and practiced behavior that was respectful to girls. I am ashamed that I did not understand that at the time.
To Dr. Ford. I am deeply sorry for my actions of 35 years ago. Please know that in the context of my 1980s thinking, I felt that my sexual arousal entitled me to use what I considered at the time to be gentle force, actually alcohol-enhanced gentle force, to persuade you to satisfy my needs. Looking back, I think my friend Mark Judge saw that things were getting out of hand, and he jumped on us to disrupt my actions. I am sorry for my actions of 35 years ago. I am sorry that my actions changed your sense of well being. I am sorry that my actions have negatively affected you in to your adult life, still unresolved even just a few years ago such that you took up the issue with a therapist is 2012.
To Ms. Ramirez. Honestly, I do not remember the event you describe, exposing myself and pushing my penis in your face. But I did drink at parties in college, sometimes to excess, and I believe that what you are saying could very likely be true. I am sorry for my boorish and immature behavior.
In my time since college, I have changed my behavior. I have adopted the accepted rules of how men should behave towards women. You will not find any examples of bad behavior by me in the last 30 years.
Like slavery and marital rape, the role and rights of women in society has undergone a gradual but earth-shaking change over the years. Two hundred years ago, a woman was not allowed to own property in her own name. One hundred years ago, women were not allowed to vote. Professions that were once closed to women have, to varying degrees, become more open. Great progress has been made towards equality for women, but we are clearly still in the middle of this great change.
Great progress has been made in so many other areas in the last few hundred years. Ideas that were once common place and accepted are now completely discredited. 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.
But the fact that women face harassment and roadblocks in many professions, the fact that women are paid less than men, the fact that women still face subtle and overt discrimination in so many areas, the fact that many women feel threatened by men and male privilege, shows that we have not yet reached the end of the centuries-long progress of women’s rights.
So, where does that leave us today, at this confirmation hearing?
I have led a respectable life over the last three decades. I believe I am qualified to be a member of the Supreme Court. But the public accusations against me have opened my eyes to some issues that girls and women face. I can see that the United States is still in a period of transition concerning women’s rights and the role of women. In 50 years from now, in 100 years from now, our current period of time, the time of #metoo, will be looked at as a time of great transition. But what will be the state of women’s rights in 50 or 100 years?
If I am confirmed to be a member of the Supreme Court, and even if I am not confirmed, these are some things I now believe.
- For women to achieve equal rights, we must be vigilant about discrimination and harassment in the workplace and in many other areas of society. At some point in the future, hopefully, newly developed norms of society will enhance peer pressure to ensure that bad behavior is not tolerated. Until that time we must have strong laws to fight behavior that hurts women.
- I believe that progress in women’s rights over the next century will further the already evident position that women have a right to control their own bodies. I believe this is the culmination of the last 200 years of efforts to change the completely male dominated society of 200 years ago to a society where women have complete equality with men. Women should be free to decide their sexual activity and their use of birth control. 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. Again the example, one hundred years ago, a woman’s right to vote was hotly debated. Today, in the United States, it is universally accepted. I believe that a woman’s right to control her own body will also one day be universally accepted.
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.
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. It is up to you to decide if you want me to be a Supreme Court justice.