#Metoo movement is finally making change
As America’s Supreme Court nominee was being outed as an alleged sexual predator, Bill Cosby was being led handcuffed into prison.
Once known as “America’s Dad”, the disgraced 81-year-old now goes by his new moniker inmate NN7687.
Cosby got jailed with a term of up to 10 years after being convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand.
For decades he had preached about family values and decency when in truth he turned out to be an indecent man with dozens of women claiming he sexually abused them too.
Cosby was so good at playing the good guy he tried to fool everyone – apart from his victims – that Dr Huxtable could never be Mr Hyde.
His reckoning was too long in coming but what will undoubtedly prove to be more important than the actor’s conviction is the #Metoo movement is making a real change.
Women are now being listened to and action is finally being taken.
Cosby’s conviction showed when sex assault claims are treated with the seriousness they deserve, even historic offences are still not without reproach.
And that is why when dealing with the US Supreme Court nomination – the second most important appointment in the States after the President – it is imperative America listens to those women accusing Brett Kavanaugh of abuse.
Putting aside the controversial views of Donald Trump’s nominee, last week he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for what was billed as a “job interview”.
What transpired was truly shocking.
After hearing from one of Kavanaugh’s alleged victims, he delivered an aggressive, disgraceful defence of himself.
What the US saw before the committee was an impulsive man, a bitter brat deviating from fury to pitiful sobs.
He appeared so bereft of balance it was difficult not to feel uncomfortable that this is the man who will be making decisions that will affect millions of people’s lives.
Despite what countless others have claimed about his drunken aggressive behaviour, Kavanaugh presented himself as the allamerican jock, the model only child.
The world looked on as he teared up over keeping a calendar because that’s what his dad did as he swore under oath he never “sexually assaulted anyone.” He portrayed himself as women’s best friend, repeatedly saying how it was a slur on his name how he could ever abuse anyone of the opposite sex because he provided them with jobs.
He went to great pains to say how he hired pre-emptively four female law clerks to work with him at the Supreme Court.
To entertain even the thought he was capable of abuse would be to destroy the entire premise he had always lived a holier-than-thou life.
As Republicans rushed to have Kavanaugh’s nomination confirmed with their majority vote, thankfully at the 11th hour sense prevailed. An FBI probe was launched questioning him and the accusers who threaten to derail his dream.
To jam Kavanaugh’s confirmation through, without seeking to dispel the darkening cloud over his head, would be to leave the public in doubt about his honesty and character.
In turn, it would set an even lower standard for taking claims of sexual abuse seriously.
Politics should play no part in the appointment of a judge yet clearly games have no doubt been played on both sides.
It is the only reason why so much urgency about this confirmation has been seen while the same cannot be said about calls for holding a fair and thorough investigation.
This is not, as Mr Trump’s Republicans have claimed, a matter of demanding the destruction of a man’s career based on vague or unsubstantiated claims – it is a matter of treating such allegations with the proper gravity.
People are wrong to compare Kavanaugh to Cosby – they are poles apart. But what they do share is their public persona is different from their private one.
Kavanaugh has revealed himself to be capable of acting in anger, vicious in views while showing him to be aggressive even without the drink he admits to loving.
Justice would not be served by his presence on the Supreme Court.