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OPINION

Kavanaugh, Collective Guilt and Social Justice

Kavanaugh, Collective Guilt and Social Justice
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., September 27, 2018. (Saul LoebAFP/Getty Images)

Bruce Abramson By and Friday, 28 September 2018 02:20 PM EDT Current | Bio | Archive

What’s really going on with the Kavanaugh confirmation?

At one level, the answer is easy. The moment Justice Kennedy announced his retirement, Democrats announced that they would do whatever was necessary to defeat President Trump’s nominee. Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, one of the most mainstream, widely lauded judges of our generation; the Democrats are delivering on their promise. They don’t give a damn about what’s true, what should matter, or whom they destroy. Their callous indifference — and outright cruelty — to Christine Blasey Ford and to Brett Kavanaugh was on full, hideous display on Thursday. The Democrats designed their inquisition intentionally to inflict maximum public humiliation and distress on both of their witnesses.

If it works, rest assured they will do it again. And again. And again.

Of course, while their vendetta against President Trump may explain their macabre obsession with analyzing high school yearbook fart jokes and lunatic insistence that any wrongfully accused person should eagerly invite the FBI to run roughshod through their personal lives, the Democrats’ calculus has another, deeper level. They see their grotesque public mangling of the Constitution as a political win-win.

Democrats are playing for the votes of suburban women in swing districts. They believe that these swing voters are gullible and easily manipulated. Their strategy is simple: paint the GOP as a bunch of good old boys protecting clean-cut gang rapists running suburban house parties — then watch the women run towards their Democratic protectors. They’ll continue this game until swing-district suburban women prove them wrong. It’s the standard Democrat playbook.

Ominously, however, there’s also a third level that has emerged. It’s easy to miss, but it’s the most important level, where the Democrats are neither merely cynical nor political, but revolutionaries; crusaders for “social justice” — an illiberal new social order that stands poised to engulf us all.

The Progressive moral universe is “identitarian.” Within it, we are not individuals, and our personal actions are irrelevant. Instead, we exist only as representatives of group identities assigned to us by Progressivism. We either bear the burden of sins Progressivism attributes to our groups, or we are victims, entitled to compensation for evils Progressivism believes our groups have endured. This doctrine, as rigid as any tenet of the most hidebound orthodox faith, is a central pillar of identity politics, intersectionality theory, and Progressive morality.

No one would suggest that the orphan son of white Appalachian coal miners enjoyed a more advantaged childhood than the Ivy-educated daughter of successful black corporate lawyers. To Progressives, however, such individual distinctions — and lives — are inconsequential. They’re dwarfed by the “privilege” and “institutional racism” inherent in the reality that throughout American history, white men have indeed generally enjoyed far greater benefits than black women.

To see this morality at play in the Kavanaugh case, assume for a moment the Democrats mean what they say. Pretend that Senator Blumenthal really finds the allegations of all three accusers credible. Pretend that Senator Hirono really believes that conservative men bear the burden of proving that they’re not rapists. Pretend that Senator Harris believes that it’s important to believe a woman’s allegations of abuse merely because she’s a woman.

As disturbing as it may be, live for a moment in that moral universe. What truths provide guidance?

The answer lies in the statement of a man named James Roche, newly famous as Brett Kavanaugh’s freshman roommate at Yale. Speaking of Debbie Ramirez (accuser #2), Roche said: “I cannot imagine her making this up…I believe that he and his social circle were capable of the actions that Debbie described.” Bingo. He and his social circle. Not Kavanaugh as an individual; Kavanaugh as part of a group. Not he “did”; his typewere capable.”

The pieces fall into place. Progressives hear generic stories about a preppy jock turned frat boy who enjoys parties and beer. “Guys like that” have been getting away with murder for years. (Just ask Ted Kennedy.) “Guys like that” skirt on DUIs. (Just ask Beto O’Rourke.) And who are their victims? Innocent women from the same social circle. (Just ask Bill Clinton.)

In the Progressive moral universe, it all makes sense. It doesn’t matter what teenage Brett Kavanaugh did or didn’t do, the allegations are credible because they describe the “sort of thing” that “guys like that” do. Kavanaugh is guilty because he was a “guy like that.” His accusers must be believed because other women have been doubted in the past.

This reasoning is not an anomaly. It is not mere cynicism. It is not mere politics. It is an entirely illiberal replacement morality. It is an intentional rejection of human rights, personal responsibility, and the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is something very new — and it is, by every standard of Western civilization, profoundly evil. It also is terrifying: a brutal caste system that inflicts punishment based on gender, race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, and orientation; a venting of rage, without regard to impact on individuals or civilization.

Senator Booker’s self-aggrandizing Spartacus reference made him an instant laughingstock. In many ways, however, gladiatorial combat — or perhaps the auto da fe — is the best possible analogy to the gruesome public spectacle of an innocent, decent, honorable public servant being slaughtered to satisfy Progressives’ thirst for blood. But Kavanaugh himself is not the Progressives’ real target; he is just as much collateral damage as is Dr. Ford. This Progressive bloodsport provides a glimpse of what American life will become should the new Democratic Party ever gain power.

The stakes this November — and every election throughout the foreseeable future — could not be higher.

Bruce Abramson is the President of Informationism, Inc., Vice President and Director of Policy at the Iron Dome Alliance, and a Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research. Jeff Ballabon is CEO of B2 Strategic, a Senior Fellow at the American Conservative Union's Center for Statesmanship and Diplomacy, and an advisor to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. To read more of their reports — Click Here Now.

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AbramsonandBallabon
What’s really going on with the Kavanaugh confirmation?
kavanaugh, hearing, progressivism
1004
2018-20-28
Friday, 28 September 2018 02:20 PM
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