On this cloudy Friday, I believe a few things to be true:
- I believe Christine Blasey Ford.
- I believe Brett Kavanaugh is a basically good man.
- Notwithstanding his behavior as a teenager and his petulant performance yesterday, which reeked of entitlement.
- I also believe Kavanaugh doesn’t remember what Blasey Ford accuses him of doing because it wasn’t a big deal to him.
- In 1982 (or 1991), it wasn’t considered notable when a man behaved by standards that would be appalling today. I know. I was there.
- By all accounts, Kavanaugh was a classic “bro” who spent his time hanging around the kinds of guys Trump’s defenders dismiss as boys engaging in “locker-room talk.” You only need look at his writings and OMG HIS CALENDARS to see that he was a bro. The culture he grew up in wouldn’t have looked at a little “horseplay” with a woman as worth remembering.
- The evidence we have is that Kavanaugh didn’t have tremendous game when it came to women in high school or college. To the extent that he was involved with women at all, at least in high school, the evidence publicly available at present suggests that he was involved in the presence of other men.
- High school aged athletes are often (though not always) inspired by a game of one-ups-manship, so it’s completely credible that the actions Blasey Ford describes would’ve happened in the presence of another “bro.”
- Alcohol doesn’t need to render you black-out drunk to dim the memory. For example, while in Vegas with my college BFF many years ago, I drank three or four fruity, rummy drinks, then walked back to our hotel to go to bed. I wasn’t stumbling drunk, and other than sporting rosy cheeks and an extra-wide smile, you’d have been hard-pressed to identify me as drunk. Yet, the only thing I remember from that night (besides how happy I was) is the moment I sat down in the lobby bathroom to answer nature’s call before riding the elevator upstairs. And I remember that moment because I was momentarily COMPLETELY SURE I wasn’t going to be able to stand up and walk anywhere, given how much the room was spinning. That fear sent a jolt of adrenaline through my body that sharpened my awareness and left a strong memory. Within seconds, I was standing and walking–again, not stumbling–to the elevators, which I rode upstairs, took out my contacts, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I didn’t black out at any point, but I don’t remember many details… because they didn’t seem out of the ordinary, and they quickly faded from my memory. That’s how memory works.
- I believe that Kavanaugh doesn’t have specific memories of that night, and hence has made the decision to defend his reputation forcefully and angrily.
- If someone accused me of something I couldn’t remember doing, I’d be forceful and angry, too.
- That said, if someone accused me of something I couldn’t remember doing but that might have plausibly happened… I’d be inclined to hear them out and make apologies for any accidental hurt I incurred.
- Multiply that by exponential factors if I were seeking a seat on the Supreme Court, an august body that demands reverence and the utmost in character, morality, and truthfulness.
- As I’ve said elsewhere, if you took Kavanaugh’s words and tone and transplanted them into the most lovable, respected, and warm-hearted woman you can find, she would be described as hysterical, unhinged, and categorically unqualified to occupy the Supreme Court. Why is it OK for a man to behave that way, then?
- At this point, he has so fully dug in his heels that he has left no room whatsoever to backtrack should evidence be discovered that he ever so much as kissed a woman without her consent.
- Relatedly: A Trump supporter and mom was happy to tell MSNBC cameras that boys groping girls is “no big deal.” (See video here: https://twitter.com/calebecarma/status/1045029337316159489)
- I abhor politics and the take-no-prisoners world we’re living in. It makes me sick to my stomach. Genuinely good, caring public servants are sucked into this system and turned into hateful, conniving, manipulative people. It is disgusting.
- We must overturn Citizens United. Start here: http://www.americanpromise.net/
This is what I believe today. Share this as you please.
