"This is mainly attributable to higher levels of support for Mr. Kavanaugh among less engaged, less educated and nonwhite Democrats: "
It is a major problem that information hasn't reached these less educated and engaged group about how Kavanaugh has ruled and is likely to rule in the future.
With all the attention on accusations of sexual assault and lying under oath about getting fall down drunk, what should have been covered with equal intensity is how likely he is to protect the interests of wealthy Republican donors (eg doubling down on Citizens United-money is speech, corporations are people), semi-automatic weapons everywhere (that's why the NRA-bought and sold Republicans held the Garland seat open) and protecting Trump from accountability for lawbreaking, among other issues.
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Women have children. Both Sons and Daughters.
And protective of both.
The danger of false accusation is an equal opportunity
danger, gender not a determinant, nor race.
Examples abound in American arts and letters.
Teenage girls in the Crucible.
Innocent cowboys hung in the Oxbow Incident.
The iconic parable of To KILL a MOCKINGBIRD.
The STUPIDITY of the MOB,
The unfortunate tendency of
people to think the worst of someone.
Schadenfreude of the Crowd?
Guilty till proven innocent so much more beguiling.
Of course, the impossiblity of proving a negative a sad reality.
However, perhaps Mr. Lincoln words a cause for hope:
"You can fool some of the people all of the time.
You can fool all of the people some of the time.
But you can't fool alll of the people all of the time."
I guess the exit polls of the Midterms might provide new data
on wisdom or naivete of that observation.
Personally, i suspect a rather pronounced backlash.
The mob may be rash, But when something stinks, it stinks.
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How do you decide? Well, first you are not determining guilt or innocence. Second, how long ago the event occurred compared to when the victim brought it to light is irrelevant. Thirdly a person does not have to be perfect to be on the Supreme Court or hold higher office. All of these things are simply irrelevant.
This whole exercise is to determine Kavanaugh's character; whether his character today is sufficient to be approved for a lifetime as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. That this is not a trial of guilt or innocence is clear. What we are trying to determine is whether Kavanaugh's character meets the test.
Those that say this is typical teenage behavior are relegating all teenagers then and now to being capable of sexually assaulting anyone. I will say that teenagers then and now that engaged in intoxication beyond their senses and as a result, sexually assaulted someone, were the exception rather than the rule. If not, then we have a serious problem. Sexually assaulting someone - if true - shows a deep lack of character and judgement. And that is what should be looked at in terms of what we want in a Supreme Court justice.
Kavanaugh could have done this. But he is denying it. I don't know whether he did or not. But he sure seems to be lacking in character since at least one other, possibly two - accusers have surfaced alleging the same thing. The writings of his close associates also indicate the likelihood of his dishonesty.
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How does one justify their support of Kavanaugh to their daughters? Especially to their daughters in high school and college, who deal with these types of assaults all the time; who, understanding exactly how little you value girls and women against the future of a 'good young man' have not told you about what has happened to them?
Have you even asked your daughters about what they deal with? Kavanaugh's behavior in high school and college are the behaviors of lots of adolescent boys and young men--and frankly, if they were young men of color, white fathers and mothers around the country would be demanding they face charges and time in prison. But a 'good' young man, who attended the best schools and has all the privileges money can buy? Apparently not even one's own daughter is more valuable than this ideological coup of the Supreme Court.
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Here's another troubling statistic that ties into the Kavanaugh debate...
76% of all the states and territories of the US have NO definition of consent in their laws. The ones that do make certain types of sexual assault nonpunishable under their laws.
Our laws must change. How do you think Kavanaugh, who couldn't keep his zipper up during college and high school, will rule when new laws that define consent are tested at the Supreme Court level, and affect the conduct of college and high school students.
Watch this TEDxTalk to see what consent really means. http://bit.ly/2MvLpJp
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@Joyce M. Short, Author, Carnal Abuse by Deceit Thanks for the Ted Talk reference. A lot of work indeed...
"Eighty-one percent of Republican women support Mr. Kavanaugh’s nomination." That is just scary and questionable data. Where did the author get this information?
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It’s hard to make sense of what the woman’s movement is.
81% of women support Kavanaugh, 53% of white women voted for Trump (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/us/politics/white-women-helped-elect-...
Is the women’s movement really a coalition of women of color and a minority of white women? Is it expanding its base?
@Blue
The link you provide is broken, so I googled to try to get to it.
"81% of women support Kavanaugh" has never been the case, and today his support among women is about half that.. Perhaps the poll was conducted among women of a certain sort, such as Fox "news" women.
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@Marvant
81% of GOP women. It’s in this article
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@Blue
81% of Republican women support Kavanaugh....
The Women's Movement reflects feminist ideals. They are complex but my guess is that the vast majority of the women who support Kavanaugh don't identify as feminists and/or with the women's movement.
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81% of Republican women support Kavanaugh. Yikes. There's a lot to dig into there.
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I am not sure where I stand on this. How many people have done things at 15 or 16 that they regretted? Most of us? Do you have to live a perfect life now if you have any ambitions at all in the future? How do you prove that these women are truthful? How do you prove that Kavanaugh is truthful 30 years after the fact? This is a no win situation for either side no matter how you look at it but the moral of this story is for you youngsters out there - you better not get drunk, say anything, do anything or think anything that might get you in trouble 30 years from now.
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@Anita
Well, I try hard to be nuanced, too.
Had the vetting process been transparent, had documents been released, and had there been a real discussion over the ways he was beyond the pale during the Starr investigation, I would be able to give your argument a bit more credence. As it stands..
He's a weak candidate, with an obvious drinking problem, that even if he has overcome, is not one he has taken responsibility for.
I am a drinker. I had wild times in the same era as K. I never, not once, drank myself to oblivion. So, what might I have done had I gotten that drunk? We need never know.
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@Anita Or why not try to be a decent person so that however drunk you got it wouldn't enter your head to take someone into a room with a look-out and hold them down on a bed. Why not be a person who does not have attitudes to women that would allow this behaviour.
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Yeah, turns out sexual assault doesn't play as well as people might have thought. The question is whether the GOP will pay a price in November for how they've handled this.
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After reading the various columns about Kavanaugh and listening to the news, I do not know how the Judiciary Committee can in good conscience go through with the hearing on Thursday.
These claims from all sides need a thorough investigation, before these men can make a informed decision.
Oh wait, I forgot informed decision making is only for fools, not for the Republicans on the Committee.
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I wonder if the polling on Judge Kavanaugh can be affected by trying to shift peoples' opinions on the process, and not the person. If I were doing an ad for a generic Republican candidate right now, I might think about highlighting the circus going on right now in Washington over his nomination, to include Democratic Congresspersons delivering their prefabricated judgement on Judge Kavanaugh before his testimony, screaming leftist protesters, their suspension of disbelief when it comes to a certain ambulance-chasing, publicity hound lawyer, and question whether this crowd deserves the keys to the Capitol. You actually leave Kavanaugh himself out of the ad, thereby making the issue one of Democratic deportment, and putting my candidate's opponent on the defensive.
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@David Godinez
And what of the prefabricated judgement of the Republican committee members on the veracity of women's experiences. Why go through the charade of a hearing, why expose Dr. Ford to the humiliation if she's only another mistaken woman messing with a great man's future?
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The other day Women for Trump were on TV. The spokesperson was in an alternate universe, everything was a conspiracy from the Access Hollywood tape to Ms. Daniels. Everyone can have their beliefs but to pretend that the facts don't matter is pathetic.
Fact's matter and if in 2018 white women refuse to stand up for themselves, they will continue to be overrun by white elite men.
Stand tall, and vote with your minds, this is still America. Knowing that Bill Cosby will be going to jail for his misdeeds that this man is no better and can not sit on the Supreme Court. If he does, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Show up on Thursday and let your voices be heard support each other and finally do the right thing.
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@Tony - "Most people, when presented with facts that run counter to their pre-conceived worldview, will ignore the facts rather than change their viewpoint." - paraphrase of an old Utney Reader column
"Got two good eyes, but I still can't see." - Jerry Garcia
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@Tony when I was in my early 20s (now 80) I was a heavy drinker and I still have two vivid memories of alcohol black out.
The first one affected how I still act today. At 21 I was at a party and got drunk enough to use the bathroom of the host's party to vomit. I don't remember the exact location of the apartment. I don't remember leaving the party. I woke up the next morning and my car was parked in its usual spot. I suddenly had the realization that I had driven from the near north side of Chicago to the near south side of the city. I had driven through Chicago's Loop. I never drove to a party again.
Listening to the judge dance around his drinking as a young man I became convinced that his insistence about never blacking out is the only way he can maintain he could not have done anything as disgusting as the story told by Dr.Ford.
I have no training in how the mind works or medical training of any kind so I can not state that it is possible that Dr.Ford has erred in her memory and it was someone else who attacked her.
I don't believe she is mistaken. I don't believe the judge is honest.
Some of the guys I knew in college went on to law school.
There may come a time when I must decide whether to keep my mouth shut about stuff like hard drug abuse, petty theft, vandalism, mayhem, pipe bombs, not to mention all the various sexual matters. I only ever witnessed one "train", didn't take part in it, and wouldn't you know the girl involved is a Facebook connection today (I am 39).
My point is that Kavanaugh's situation is completely believable. He is a fool to carry his ambition so far that it ruins his life. Even if he prevails, this is disastrous. Maybe he's too dumb and too narcissistic to realize it.
Oh, and let's not forget that, somehow, Kavanaugh is in debt to the tune of $200k for baseball tickets?
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Bottom line, Judge Kavanaugh's character is now tainted. So, all his decisions on Supreme Court will be as well.
It appears that for the GOP, this concept is meaningless.
After all, look what sits in the White House.
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