1. Ms. Ford has received far too many concessions already. If this accusation had been brought in a court of law (as it should have been if the goal was justice and not political gain), a hearing date would have been set, Ford would have had to appear or her claim would be dismissed, and she would have no choice about who would question her or the format of the questions or of the hearing. Fairness and due process would have been afforded to both parties.
2. This is not about justice for what Ms. Ford alleges happened. This is about destroying a man whose views are not in accord with those who are now using Ms. Ford and a smear campaign to keep a qualified jurist from the bench. They are willing to throw out rules of fairness, justice, democracy in order to further their own power. They don’t care about Ms. Ford or the American people. They just want to destroy their opposition.
3. The question before the Senate is whether or not Judge Kavanaugh should become Justice Kavanaugh, not whether rules of fairness and justice, including the concept of innocent until proven guilty, should be waived for any woman with an unsubstantiated accusation.
4. Nor should this one alleged incident be the sole criteria for the nomination. Even if this were proven true, it would be one event – one teenage act of poor judgment – to be weighed with 30+ years of adulthood, and with especial emphasis on his proven abilities as a judge. If one incident during the teen years when the mind is not fully developed is enough to destroy one’s life forever, than there are few people on earth whose lives should not be ruined. In a court of law, crimes, including murder, that take place before adulthood are usually tried and sentenced in juvenile courts with likely expungement of records when adulthood is reached. The law recognizes the difference between a teen indiscretion and an intentional adult act.
5. Women are not victims as the MeToo movement would have us believe. Giving a MeToo accuser everything she wants simply because she brings forth an accusation does nothing for women’s rights. We all know that not all accusations are true and that there are many reasons for bringing an accusation forward. But to treat all accusations, especially those with no supporting evidence, as true cheapens those that are true and provable and in a way makes them more suspect. Additionally, demanding that a woman be believed without more, without the due process that justice demands, in a way makes all women victims – they are apparently unable to stand up for themselves but instead must be coddled and believed with nothing more. This is unfair to both men and women and horribly contrary to the justice that we all should demand.
6. I think women are strong – stronger than the treatment of Ms. Ford would have us believe. When she decided to come forward (and especially because she had hired legal counsel) she knew what she was getting into. She is a well educated woman; it is time we stopped babying her. While she may or may not be emotionally distraught, this is America; we do not let any type of accuser (even those who represent some cause or identity group that many support) destroy another human being without far more than an accusation. I suspect that Ms. Ford knows that even if she is being counseled otherwise.
7. Perhaps what Ms. Ford claims happened indeed did happen. Perhaps there is more to the story. Perhaps different individuals were involved. Perhaps this is a memory that she has somehow constructed in her mind over the course of 36 years and truly believes it is true, even if it is not. Or perhaps it is all a fabrication. Since she has brought this allegation forward, she must allow her allegation to be questioned and examined in a way that is fair and just to both individuals involved.
8. This is a criminal allegation and should be given the due process standards that criminal allegations deserve. It should not be tried in the media or the court of public opinion or based upon a political or identity group’s agenda.
9. These hearings are a complete farce. Before they began we had the Democrats in unison telling us they would not vote for Kavanaugh no matter what was said at the hearings. They had Ms. Ford’s accusation but did not bring it forward. They waited, hoping it would look like Kavanaugh would not get the votes he needed, but, when the hearings ended and he had proven himself to be an outstanding jurist and the vote seemed certain in his favor, the Democrats then brought forward the unsubstantiated allegation and demanded a hearing. That served as a nice delay. And delay. And delay. And still delay. The accuser and her Democrat attorneys made demands for the hearing that essential threw out any semblance of fairness, instead weighting the hearing in the accuser’s favor before it has even begun. Sadly, the Republican leadership, apparently fearful of this woman who can’t stand up for herself or show up at a hearing, caved to many of the demands. Yet we still have no certain hearing as demands continue. And now, the call having been put out for more, we have other accusers. Yet, all the witnesses named by the accusers have said nothing happened. No matter. It’s all about delay and keeping a good jurist from the bench.
10. We can easily infer that the Democrats’ concern is not with Ms. Ford or women victims of violence when we look at their reactions to members of their own party who have been accused with actual substantiating evidence, unlike this case. When it is one of their own, the women are ignored, shamed, or in some other way silenced while excuses are made and inquiries are not held. In those instances it is rare that there is a demand that the woman must always be believed.
11. This has really got to stop. I don’t care how many more “memories” are suddenly found. I don’t care what other concessions Ford and her attorneys demand. There is a hearing set for Thursday. She can come testify or she can go home. Anyone else has had plenty of time to come forward. They have lost their chance to testify here. If they really feel aggrieved, let them go to a court of law and seek justice as Ms. Ford should have done.
12. This smear campaign, in addition to making a mockery of the judicial nomination process, has a frightening chilling effect on the future of our democracy. If those who step forward to serve are forced to face what Judge Kavanaugh is now enduring, how can we expect good people to come forward? This is a way of silencing those views with which one party does not agree. A democracy requires diverse views. It deserves good public servants who do not have to go through the equivalent of a Salem Witch trial and risk the destruction of their lives as well as the lives of their families in order to serve.
13. This whole circus is a full out attack on Democracy. It is time that it stop, that a vote is taken and that decisions are made based on the criteria for sitting as a Justice, not on the basis of a 36 year old unsubstantiated teenage allegation and the undemocratic demand that all women must be believed, period, without more, without proof, without due process for the accused, and in direct opposition to democracy’s core belief in innocent until proven guilty. Proof does not and cannot consist of someone’s accusation alone.
14. I have trouble keeping up with this ridiculous spectacle. I want to ignore it, but no American should. Rather, we should all stand up against what is going on and demand a return to fairness, justice, and the rule of law.
My past 3 blogs have addressed some of the above and some other points in more detail – I encourage you to read them:
https://ps.pinkspolitics.com/2018/09/this-is-crucial-moment-for-america.html This addresses the convergence of tactics used by the Left for over 30 years to keep conservative, non-activist jurists from the Appellate and Supreme Court benches with the use of identity politics and its companion hatred as a weapon against those standing in the way of a political agenda.
https://ps.pinkspolitics.com/2018/09/purging-enemies-of-party-with.html This includes the parallels between this demand of a guilt sentence upon accusation alone to the same tactics of accusation alone used by dictatorships to silence and remove the opposition. It discusses democracy’s need for due process and fairness and a real belief in innocence until proof of guilt is shown.
https://ps.pinkspolitics.com/2018/09/its-about-more-than-nominee-its-about.html This is about the broader implications for our country of this nomination and the farce that it has become. If we let the Democrats get away with their antics, if we let them stop a perfectly valid nomination based on accusation and innuendo alone, then we are empowering further their assault on our democracy and we are well on the way to losing America as we know it.
See also: https://ps.pinkspolitics.com/2017/11/me-too-does-not-empower-you.html, a post from last year about the MeToo movement
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