Kavanaugh and the slide into fascism.

Politics

The  white men of the GOP view Kavanaugh (and themselves) as victims.

I’ll give some examples, then I’ll explain what this has to do with fascism.

“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life. . .”https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1045470944469426176 …

1/ “[Dr. Ford’s testimony] is a disgraceful smear campaign. . .” Don Jr. “It’s nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor and his family against a 35 year old claim with ZERO evidence . . .” David French/National Review

2/ “OK,” you ask, “what does this have to do with fascism?” Yale Prof Stanley @jasonintrator explains. When fascist ideology takes hold, the dominant group feels it’s being victimized by encroaching equality. What’s actually happening is this:

3/ An oppressed group wants equality. The dominant group feels that if the oppressed group gets its way, it will experience an enormous loss. The dominant group comes to believe that equality is a myth, that nature prefers a hierarchy.

4/ The dominant group believes itself to be the natural top of the hierarchy. They also believe the only way the oppressed group can achieve equality is by replacing them as the dominant group. This is step one. Step 2: To create fascism, the leaders maintain power by lying.

5/ Democracy requires truth. It requires rule of law. The rule of law must apply to everyone. Without truth, nobody can speak truth to power. So there is only power.

6/ Many [most?] people watching the Kavanaugh hearing saw a farce: The GOP refused to conduct a full investigation, refused to bring in witnesses, and then claimed the accusations were uncorroborated. Some even say there was ZERO evidence. (Testimony IS evidence)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/27/politics/kavanaugh-american-bar-association/index.html

7/ Then Senators justified voting to confirm by saying that Kavanaugh guilt wasn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Except that is the standard at a criminal trial. And there was NO criminal trial, which requires fair procedures.

8/ Even before Flake announced his vote, the American Bar Association made clear that the hearing did NOT comport with rule of law and fundamental fairness. Using a criminal standard (the highest standard of proof) is thus a flat out distortion & lie.

9/  Moreover, the Senate refused to investigate other allegations. Rule of Law is torpedoed: Those in power will stop at nothing to keep power. And yet the entire GOP falls in line with the lie that there was “ZERO evidence” even though many know better.

10/ Here’s why they go along with the lie: “The lie is pointing out an important truth,” Sarah Sanders said once when explaining one of Trump’s lies.  In other words, the GOP overlooks the lie because they believe underneath is an important truth.

11/ The lie concerning is that Dr. Ford wasn’t a victim; she was part of a plot to smear the reputation of a good man. The lie, however, gets to what the GOP sees as an important truth: A woman should not be able to “destroy a guy’s life” by going public with salacious claims.

12/ The lie and sham hearing helps turn back the clock to a time when rape and sexual assault laws protected men from false accusation instead of protecting women from attack. 
(What do I mean? See   ) And it tilts us closer to an actual regime change.

13/ For young people who don’t understand the significance of Hatch’s comment that Ford is attractive: before the 1970s, rape victims were described in news accounts as attractive; if she wasn’t, people doubted she was really raped. See Brownmiller, Against Our Will.

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