Democrats: Harness your rage to get out the vote
WASHINGTON » Pay attention, Democrats. Watch what Republicans are doing. You’ll see what raw power looks like. That’s why winning in November is so vital to the nation’s future.
President Trump, aware the U.S. is passionately divided on many issues, could have nominated a moderate jurist to replace retiring Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been the swing vote between the court’s conservative and liberal wings. Instead, Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, a darling of far-right pressure groups that want to topple the remaining pillars of progressive jurisprudence, including Roe v. Wade.
Reams of relevant documents from Kavanaugh’s White House service under George W. Bush were withheld. Democrats squawked. The Republicans who control the Senate just smiled.
When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford reported that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her as a teen, she was summoned to a kangaroo-court hearing. GOP Republicans’ hired-gun prosecutor tried — unsuccessfully — to poke holes in Ford’s story. Then, after Kavanaugh’s red-faced denial, they cheered him on rather than interrogate him.
Forced to reluctantly reopen the FBI’s background investigation, Senate Republicans imposed an arbitrary one-week limit. Neither Ford nor Kavanaugh was interviewed. No attempt was made to contact more than 40 witnesses who might have confirmed or refuted the stories of misconduct told by Ford and two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick.
Trump, at a campaign-style rally, ridiculed Ford in a blame-the-victim rant that drew cruel laughter from a Mississippi crowd. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plowed ahead to hold a vote to confirm Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice for life.
That’s what you can do if you have power — and what you cannot prevent if you are powerless.
The Kavanaugh fight has riled up the GOP’s base just before the midterm election. The controversy may have eliminated Democrats’ chances of seizing control of the Senate and even the chances the GOP will lose the House.
Republican voters’ enthusiasm for the November election had to rise. Trump is brilliant at inciting his supporters. And though Republicans normally take judicial nominations more seriously than Democrats, Kavanaugh’s defiance may have inspired even GOP stalwarts who disdain Trump.
If Democrats aren’t equally motivated by this outrageous power play, they don’t deserve to win in November.
The way Ford, Ramirez and Swetnick have been treated is appalling and, given what we should’ve learned from the #MeToo movement, infuriating. Ramirez and Swetnick were, for all intents and purposes, simply ignored; no meaningful attempt was made to corroborate or disprove their stories. Ramirez provided the names of more than 20 potential witnesses, according to her lawyer. Not one was contacted by the FBI.
Ford was heard, then ignored. Her testimony before the Judiciary Committee was called “compelling” by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and deemed “credible” or “believable” by almost everyone else. Yet she was not believed. Republican senators were much more concerned with the impact her allegations were having on Kavanaugh’s life than with the impact the alleged assault has had on Ford’s.
Republicans were also untroubled by Kavanaugh’s shocking temperament. He attacked Democratic senators in a nakedly partisan way and warned that “what goes around, comes around,” which sounded very much like a threat.
Such a performance should be considered disqualifying. But Republicans are in the majority, and they have the power to ignore what the nation saw and heard.
Democrats need to keep talking about the issues voters care about — health care, stagnant middle-class incomes, corruption, tax cuts for corporations andmillionaires. They need to get minorities and young voters to the polls. As the Kavanaugh issue inevitably fades for Republicans, Democrats need to remember it.
Get mad about Kavanaugh, and then get even. What “comes around” must be a Democratic wave.