Sex, Lies and the Supreme Court

We live in a world where it it now possible for a woman who was sexually assaulted at a younger age to wait until many years later to take down her male tormentor, who in the meantime has become rich and powerful and is on his way to bigger things if his past didn't catch up to him.

President Donald Trump's nominee for Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh, is on the fast track to be confirmed by a Republican Senate in spite of efforts by pesky Democrats to derail the nomination on the grounds of (A) being the President's toady, and (B) the lack of real information about his qualifications.  Other than that, why the rush?

Enter Christine Blesey Ford, a psychologist and university professor from California.  She alleges that while in high school in the 1980s, Kavanaugh held her down and raped her at a party.

Enter Deborah Ramirez, a social worker from Colorado who was once Kavanaugh's classmate at Yale, claiming she unwittingly touched his exposed penis during a drinking game.

Suddenly, Kavanaugh's fast track nomination is coming off the rails.  Both women (and maybe others) want the Senate Judiciary Committee to hear them out, and that could happen before the end of this week.  Kavanaugh has been busily defending himself by denying everything, pointing fingers at the "vast left-wing conspiracy" that seem to be pulling the strings.

You might wonder why Ford, Ramirez and others chose to risk their lives and careers at this late hour over something that may or may not have happened decades ago.  It's for the same reason women who have been in a similar situation found it difficult to make their case to authorities:  No one believes them.  Their tormentors threatened them.  It's her word against his.  Volumes of so-called "rape kits" are either unexamined or unopened.  And so on and on.

Anyone here remember Anita Hill?  Back in 1991, she testified in front of an all-male Senate Judiciary Committee about how she was sexually harassed by then-nominee Clarence Thomas in graphic detail.  Riveting and salacious stuff for the era prior to Bill Clinton's affair with an intern and Trump's dalliances with porn stars, but it didn't matter.  Thomas was confirmed shortly after he declared the whole process a "high tech lynching".  He still serves as a Supreme Court justice.  Two of the Republican members of that committee--Senators Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley--are also deciding Kavanaugh's fate.

This is what Ford, Ramirez and other women who have yet to come forward have to face.  No matter how emotionally compelling their testimony to the Senate committee might be, Trump and the GOP are going to make damn sure Kavanaugh takes his seat inside the Supreme Court chambers.  There he can exact his revenge by helping rule against the progress women and others have made in the past few decades.

Whatever happens, let's all see how this plays out in November and beyond.