What I offer here are some observations based on what I do know, I do not expect they will change your mind, in fact, I am still reserving judgment about Mr. Kavanaugh's guilt or innocence, I have no proof beyond the words of two people, neither of whom I know well enough to really say whether they are telling the truth. I do have some professional experience with hearing people's stories, including stories about trauma, and I have observed, on a few occasions, the different ways that the perpetrators of abuse and their victims can perceive the same events.
Let's start with Dr. Ford. Her demeanor, the way that she presented her testimony, including the obvious trepidation that she had about it, was entirely consistent with what one would expect from a survivor of sexual assault after over 30 years, therapy and some obvious healing work. Her composure in such a scenario was admirable. If she was sitting in my office, telling me as her pastor about this occurrence, I would believe her. I have had that actual experience over the years, women with different degrees of distance from the trauma, telling me what happened to them, and Dr. Ford's testimony was absolutely within the range of what I would consider truthfulness. Could she fake it? Maybe, but not likely. I think most people that watched, even the skeptics, would have to admit that she seemed like a woman who was telling the truth.
I think the Republican senators on the committee were wise to have a woman do their questioning for them. Today there are the usual post-mortem critiques of Mitchell and her questioning techniques, but honestly, the optic of a bunch of old men trying to break Ford down would have been even more disastrous than what took place yesterday. And I do believe that it was disastrous, but more on that in a moment.
So on to Kavanaugh, as you may gather from earlier posts, I do have some sympathy for Brett Kavanaugh. Most of that went out the window yesterday, as I watched him let his anger get the best of him. It's not that I blame him for being angry, especially if he is falsely accused, but I would hope that in testimony such as this he would have been able to keep it together. He understands the legal system as well as anyone in the room, and he was evasive about whether or not the FBI should investigate this matter. If he is innocent, indeed, if he wasn't even in the house where the alleged assault took place, he should be as interested in having dispositive proof of such a claim uncovered as anyone. He seemed to know that his buddies hold the majority and that the people who support him will do so without proof. He is also probably fairly certain that dispositive proof is going to be hard to come by, and is understandably anxious to avoid more of what has been going on this past week.
Emotionally his testimony was not as convincing, because he seems awfully sure of something that I would have a hard time being sure of myself. For me, it would be hard to say that I wasn't at some random gathering of kids at someone's house when I was in high school. I would have a hard time saying for sure that I was never with a certain assortment of people, and I wasn't even much of a drinker in High School, nor was I often at the sort of gatherings described, because unlike Kavanaugh, I wasn't a football player or the sort of person who spent a lot of time sort of hanging out with my bros, I didn't really have bros. Still, I went places on occasion and at this point, I can't really remember much about that.
You know who would remember? A girl who was traumatized at one of those gatherings, a fifteen year old who got pulled into a room and pawed at, by two guys who thought it was hilarious. And that is where this sort of breaks for me, for Kavanaugh this evening might have been totally and utterly unremarkable. Kavanaugh himself mentioned that Animal House and Fast Times at Ridgemont High were current movies in those days and that they informed the sense of humor that he and his friends shared when they put crude inside jokes in their yearbook. From the perspective of a couple of 17 year old boys who had "a few too many beers," a brief tussle with a pretty young blonde might not be much of a memory at all. Ford's account is that Kavanaugh grabbed her and groped her and then Judge jumped on top of them and knocked him off and allowed her to escape, neither of them pursued her. To them, especially if they were inebriated (not to the level of black out intoxication mind you, just enough to be fuzzy) this might have been thirty seconds to a minute of foolishness. Nothing ever came of it, she didn't go to the cops or her parents or anyone for a long time, it passed out of their memory because there were no consequences. Nothing else would have been strange for anyone at the house, except maybe for them wondering where Christine went suddenly. People suddenly leave parties all the time without explanation, it's called "ghosting," it is unremarkable.
My point is that there is a very real and plausible explanation for Kavanaugh having no recollection of this event, but for Ford it became a trauma that she had to deal with for decades. Let's say this is the truth: it happened, but to everyone except Christine Blasey, it was such a nothing evening that they can't even remember it. Kavanaugh isn't exactly lying, and he may not be the sexual predator that some of the other accusers are trying to make him, but should he be on the Supreme Court?
My answer based on his testimony yesterday is no, not because I don't believe him, but because he appears to be so very angry at the wrong people, and that makes me question his ability to put his personal feelings to the side and be an impartial arbiter of the law. That's what the Supreme Court is supposed to be and do, and it has become something rather different, it has become a de-facto legislative body. A few weeks ago a Republican Senator, Ben Sasse gave this speech at the beginning of this confirmation hearing:
I agree with pretty much everything Sasse says about the current state of our politics, which is a strange thing for me to agree that thoroughly with a Republican. What he says at around the 10 minute mark though is that he believes Kavanaugh has the ability to put his politics "in a box marked irrelevant," as he puts on the black robes of a judge. I do not believe, after watching Kavanaugh explode at the Democratic minority on the Judicial commission, that he has that ability. I think his past as an extremely partisan operative for the Republican party makes him rather unsuitable for the Supreme Court, and that is regardless of whether or not I believe Dr. Ford.
I do, in fact, believe her. As for Kavanaugh, I'll give him the benefit of some kind of doubt, and I suspect he's probably safe in the reality that he is innocent until proven guilty and proof is going to be really hard to come by at this point. He's also safe in that he has an invertebrate Senate majority and a tight network of ivy-league power on his side. He's safe in that the Democrats like Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi rub the MAGA crowd so wrong that anything they say must be conspiracy against the good, hard working people of America.
Kavanaugh is probably going to be confirmed, and we will have a second Supreme Court Justice who has been credibly accused of treating a woman badly. I'm just going to have to vote, and tell my daughter that I will always believe her.
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