No place for reason in politics these days
Millions of lives threatened. Polluted air and water. Fires. Pestilence. Floods.
The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court has already veered into an absurd direction, with Democrats predicting cataclysmic results for the nation, and Republicans crowing that their man is a legal genius.
That’s why it was so jarring to listen to the reaction from one Democrat, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, who obviously didn’t get the cookie-cutter talking points memo on Kavanaugh.
“It’s a little too early for me to draw a final conclusion,” Capuano said on Boston Herald Radio.
What? Heresy! How dare you say you want to give this man a “fair hearing”?
It’s easy to see now why Capuano is facing a re-election challenge from the left; he just won’t toe the party line.
Capuano went on to say that “everything I’ve read” about Kavanaugh would lead him to oppose the choice, but even that sounds too mild to fit into the world of political hyperbole we now live in.
“The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh will threaten the lives of millions of Americans for decades to come,” tweeted former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Now that’s more like it. McAuliffe knows how to push the buttons of the base.
And so does U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was livetweeting her appearance at a protest rally against Kavanaugh at the Capitol on Monday night.
Warren made clear she’ll be voting no against the hideously conservative Kavanaugh, who despite his tribute to his mother at his nomination announcement, is getting no love from women’s groups.
Warren has nothing to lose politically by getting out in front against Kavanaugh, and in fact is trying to emerge as an opposition leader to enhance her chances for the 2020 race.
“This is the divisiveness of our country right now,” state Rep. Geoff Diehl, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said on Herald Radio’s “Battenfeld” show yesterday. “You’ve got mobs that were basically ready to tear apart the nominee no matter who it was — just fill in the name.
“That’s the mentality of the Democratic party right now and the party Elizabeth Warren wants to be the leader of,” Diehl added.
It’s the same mentality that has triggered a protest at Northeastern University, because the school simply has a research contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The research has nothing to do with immigration, but that fact doesn’t seem to matter. Any association with ICE is now cause for a protest, and abolishing ICE is now the standard position of the Democratic Party.
So Capuano can stubbornly cling to his old-fashioned notion that a Supreme Court nominee deserves a fair hearing. But it’s at his political peril. He’ll soon find out there’s no place for reasonableness in politics any more.