“The hearing, which was supposed to bring clarity to the nomination process, was a scorched-earth confrontation of men against women, right against left — a cascade of recriminations, anger, tears and sobs. The day ended with discord bordering on dark visions of a hopeless future.”
That is the byline on the front page story of the Washington Post this morning. The key sentence is the last.
This is the Trump effect distilled to it’s poisonous essence. Trump is the product of 50 years, and particularly the last 10 years, of a GOP/Conservative movement cancer. Kavanaugh and the committee hearings are the necrotic center of the largest tumor in our body politic; the glioblastoma of government.
This is only the latest, but the most damaging result of Trump’s fraudulence. He could have selected any number of equally conservative judges but picked Kavanaugh because he believes Kavanaugh will vote to protect him from the criminal charges soon to come. Kavanaugh is nothing more than a hyper-partisan hack. The Supreme Court will now be no more deliberative than the House.
All of this damage and discord comes from the cascading effect of the Trump’s pathology and guilt: he damages and eventually destroys all round him in an effort to save himself. GOP senators and representatives who once had a modicum of decency have degenerated into mini-Trumps: deceitful, cruel, angry all the time in order to please Trump and his deluded base, misogynistic, and grossly dishonest. Conservative pundits either look the other way (damning their journalistic souls) or have jumped on the disgusting Trump train.
The body politic is gravely ill. The etiology of its illness is Trump.
History will record this era as the weakest point of the Republic, possibly weaker, than the Civil War.
I pray that the week to come will be the low point.
The excision of this cancer can start with the next election.