The Internet has been all atwitter with talk of the Kavanaugh hearings, particularly Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s vocal-fry inflected testimony, as well as Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s, and Senator Lindsey Graham’s fiery, righteous outburst.
My general policy with such hot-button current events is to withhold comment until the facts are known. That’s not a savvy move for a blogger, but it gives me time to make an informed judgment on what the Truth is likely to be.
Below are comments I posted on the Portly Politico Facebook page (which I encourage you to “like,” “follow,” and whatever else one has to do to get notifications these days) about the hearings. What troubles me the most about the (it seems baseless) accusations against Judge Kavanaugh is the utter breakdown of logical thinking—and the utter willingness of his critics to throw due process and the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” under the bus.
But, we all know it’s political theatre. The Democrats are attempting to delay or derail the confirmation process until after the 2018 midterm elections. They could care less about Dr. Ford’s alleged sexual assault. I also wrote that Judge Kavanaugh would be in for a thorough Borking, so we all knew this was coming; still, I naively did not fathom the depths to which the Left would descend.
As for Dr. Ford, she could very well have suffered some trauma—or some imagined, “recovered” memory. The old “what-does-she-have-to-gain” defense is as baseless as her claims: $100,000 (and counting) in GoFundMe money, the kudos of the “Resistance,” probably a book deal, a political career if she wants it—she will be richly rewarded for her role in the potential takedown of an eminently qualified, eminently respectable constitutional originalist.
Submitted for your edification—and the good of the Republic and logical thinking—my reflections:
Some logic re: the Kavanaugh hearings.
1.) Women (and men) are sometimes the victims of sexual assault, rape, etc. That’s bad–evil!
2.) Brett Kavanaugh can be innocent and #1 can still be true.
Just because evil things happen to some people doesn’t mean that Brett Kavanaugh did anything evil, or what he has been accused of doing.
Further: I keep reading and hearing that Dr. Ford’s testimony is “credible.” Based on what evidence? As far as I can tell, there is NO evidence to support her claim, and a great deal to refute or challenge it. Being emotionally compelling is not the same thing as having substantial evidence.
Maybe something happened to her, maybe not. It’s hard to imagine someone subjecting themselves to this scrutiny for light and transient reasons. That said, the “Resistance” is real. So are recovered memories, or flawed ones.
The Democrats in the Senate don’t care (in general) about Dr. Ford’s allegations or about what’s allegedly happened to other women. They care about delaying the vote on confirmation until after the election so they can scuttle the deal. They’re using women to further their own political agenda, and as much as they’ll protest to the contrary, they know all-too-well the dangerous game they’re playing.
They’ve been running this playbook for decades. Senator Lindsey Graham’s righteous outburst demonstrates that the scales have fallen away from Establishment Republicans’ eyes–the old Marquis of Queensbury rules don’t work when the other side will destroy you when it’s politically expedient to do so.
Baseless, misdirected, and/or politically-motivated accusations don’t help anyone. They harm real victims of sexual assault and rape, as well as men who may be entirely innocent. Further, in the Kavanaugh case, they undermine the legitimacy of our already-ossified institutions.
The Portly Politico 
At my last check Dr. Ford has 12 go fund me accounts totalling nearly $1 million dollars. Looks very much like a payoff, especially since her high profile democrat lawyers are representing her pro bono! Reason and logic seem to be lost skills in our modern day!
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Thanks for the update. At the time I wrote this post, I’d heard the total was around $700,000, but I couldn’t find that number, so I erred on the side of the lower number. She’s going to be fine after all of this is over–a book deal, speaking tours, and a political prop for the Left.
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Hey Tyler, nicely laid out post. Maybe one day we’ll emerge from the other side of this rabbit hole we’ve gone down with the Leftists. But we won’t be the same and with any luck they won’t re-emerge at all.
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Here’s hoping. My students were discussing the Kavanaugh situation today, and the vast majority came down on the side of logic and reason (and Judge Kavanaugh). One student (a young lady) said that she’s “been praying for him a lot the past few weeks.” There is hope for the future yet!
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