Thursday, September 27, 2018

Three Points for a No Vote on Kavanaugh

Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money!
There are plenty of sound policy reasons to oppose Brent Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.  He could easily end up being the nail in the coffin of Roe v. Wade.  His view of Presidential power also is something to be wary of; he could be the swing vote on allowing a subpoena of Trump in a standoff.  There are tons of ordinary reasons someone on the liberal spectrum like myself would oppose him.  But, as they say, elections have consequences, and starting in 2010, we didn't get out the vote.  So, there's a certain amount of 'we get what we deserve' in this if we can't get off the couch to vote.
But that's not what this song is about.  Think about these points:

Judicial Temperament
Right off the bat, Kavanaugh came out swinging, shouting, and abusing the Senators that dared to impugn his integrity.  Just in a purely emotional sense, his unhinged behavior should disqualify him. 

Partisanship
Most judges have a pretty easily discernible political persuasion.  But there is always at least the idea that a SCOTUS judge will be fair, and above the fray.  Right out of the gate, in his opening statement (where you'd think one would place their most well-crafted ideas) he exposed his politics clearly:
"This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record. Revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups."
So, you'd have to assume a Judge Kavanaugh would be less likely to give a Democratic plaintiff a fair hearing.  Big problem.  And this is, not to mention, what basically sounds like one of those conspiracy theory aficionados!

This is what White Privilege looks like
You and I don't really know what the truth is, but here's what this smells like:  Kavanaugh is from a privileged circle of humanity.  People like that go through life, without having to pay for the consequences of their actions.  After his performance today, it's easy to imagine him being the belligerent drunk that's been widely reported.  There was plenty of room in his calendar to find himself and his cohort in a party house.  He probably knows what he did, but thinks of it in a sort of dream-like way.  It's the kind of thing he can just get away with.  His whole attitude reeked of entitlement.  How dare anyone try and take away the job he felt born into?



4 comments:

mrree said...

Geoff, I couldn't agree with more. And while you may be saving this for some blog post in the future, I have to say the turn of events that brought us here still give me a sour stomach. McConnell blocking Judge Garland from having a hearing is a grave injustice to justice.
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/29/624467256/what-happened-with-merrick-garland-in-2016-and-why-it-matters-now

These Kavanaugh hearings with Hill-Thomas allegations still relatively fresh from a historical standpoint demonstrates that our society still has a long way to go in producing the balance of legal precedence, police investigation, and interrogation, objective reporting, fair jurisprudence, etc. of many layered incidents of sexual impropriety. If the executive branch commissioned the judicial branch to provide some guiding principles od substance, what would Kavanaugh do? He's far too compromised IMHO to advise and consent let alone make lasting judgments of American law.

Still, I must reiterate the words of the now distilled, defanged, and deflated activist of my time Jesse Jackson:
KEEP HOPE ALIVE!"

Geoff Gould said...

Yes, the 'ghost' of Merrick Garland looms above all of this. But even before that, there is some revisionist history going on about "where this all started." I've heard it started with the Democrats removing the 60-vote threshold for Judges. Many don't realize the SCOTUS nominations were not intended to be lower than the 60 votes, but McConnell threw that out to get Gorsuch in. But even before all of this, the reason the Dems removed the 60 vote limit for other judge nominations was because they were all being held hostage by the GOP. This vacuum of appointments is why there have been so many conservative justices put on the bench since 45 has been elected.

Unknown said...

Agreed

Anonymous said...

I could not have done any better than you have. In my opinion ,McConnell with the hold he has on the Republicans in Congress is doggedly determined to undo anything President Obama has done. He never made any bones about his intentions, and rushing through the appointment of Kavenaugh is just another of well thought out plans to leave a republican coup on this democracy.