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Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, announced Friday afternoon that she would vote in favor of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court. She took the trouble to introduce herself first to support Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who testified. in the Senate that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school (allegation that the judge denied it under oath) and the #MeToo movement in general.
"The Me Too movement is real. It matters. It's necessary and long time ago that we have to wait, "Collins said.
The senator then asked all those who feared not to know whether this long-awaited real movement had gone too far what they wanted to hear, namely that the revolution in the last year can be stopped to favor the status quo, in which even a credible allegation of sexual assault is not enough to prevent a powerful man from getting the job that his supporters and he himself believe deserve.
"I found [Blasey Ford’s] sincere, painful and convincing testimony. I believe that she is a survivor of a sexual assault and that this trauma has turned her life upside down, "Collins said. "Nevertheless, the four witnesses she named could not corroborate any of the events."
His decision to vote yes got today's vote of confirmation – by 50 to 48 votes – Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted "present" to cover the absence of Republican compatriot Steve Daines – a pretty successful affair. Kavanaugh's tenure on the Supreme Court could be disastrous on many levels. As the ACLU pointed out in its report on Kavanaugh's record of civil liberties – before the organization breaks with its own policy of not interfering with the list of candidates nominated for justice for to oppose Kavanaugh's confirmation – he is not a big proponent of privacy, that it's about monitoring the phone records of random drug testing and random stops.
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Kavanaugh's confirmation is also widely seen as a victory for Donald Trump, who does not really care about abortion, surveillance or all this kind of boring legal procedure, but he is keen to protect his own interests in ongoing investigations into his election and finances. As noted by Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker, "Kavanaugh's belated conviction that presidents must be protected from investigation – late arrival because he felt very differently when he was chasing Bill Clinton – is a trap to Trump ".
And of course – and that's why so many women opposed Kavanaugh's candidacy even before the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford – he legitimately threatened women's freedom of reproduction, as the fifth potential vote to overthrow Roe v. Wade.
Kavanaugh's confirmation is a true victory for institutional misogyny; as my colleague Amanda Marcotte wrote on Friday, this is irrefutable proof that Republicans really hate women. But its symbolic importance will transcend party lines.
In some respects, Kavanaugh's confirmation represents the fruits of the brutal reaction against #MeToo following the publication of his critics, both vocal and silent, since the first report on Harvey Weinstein's rape charges published by the New Yorker and the New York Times, has been published. women began talking right and left about their own abuses, and past actions seemed to have consequences.
In November 2017, I wrote about the cocktail of false paranoia and grudges that had erupted in response to women's assertion of their right to occupy space on this planet without being abused or sexually harassed:
[S]Some men want the rules set out for the record to be authoritative, while we are still dealing with and reporting on the structures that have kept abusers in power for so long, so that they can start looking for new loopholes immediately. Then, at the next moment of cultural change, they will have new ammunition to throw us in the face when we push back what will be the next vanguard of goose bumps.
Here are the men and those who are invested to keep them in power at all costs: you have received such a rule from Susan Collins, who was co-signed by a majority of the US Senate.
"This is not a criminal trial and I do not believe that such claims must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt," Collins said. But, she added, such claims "should reach a threshold more likely than otherwise".
"[Ford’s] the allegations do not meet the most likely standard, "she said.
That's it: Christine Blasey Ford may be the victim of a sexual assault that has turned her life upside down, but at the same time, she insists that she will remember who assaulted her and who remained in the room and laughed at the same time – "indelible in the hippocampus" – can be considered "unlikely" by those wishing to get rid of this annoying testimony. Debbie Ramirez's assertion that Brett Kavanaugh brought her into contact with her genitals in order to move them away from her face may also be dismissed as lacking the vague mandate "to meet a more likely threshold than never".
This is how a man like Brett Kavanaugh manages to climb the ladder of success, instead of just the humiliating level of federal judges. His victory is a victory primarily for anti-choice Republicans who have the advantage of calming men and women who are upset by the speed and strength with which traditional power structures have been threatened over the past year. year. At any time, Republicans could have withdrawn their support to Kavanaugh and force Trump to return to his list and draw the name of a more dignified and anti-choice judge, one with less baggage and a cooler attitude under pressure. Doubling Kavanaugh sent a message – deliberate or otherwise – that many were eager to receive. Finally, the Senate ruled: we can stop talking about "consent"!
Kavanaugh creates a practical avatar for the #MeToo backlash because a Supreme Court judge is both the pinnacle of a career in law and a lifetime appointment. People disgusted by Louis C.K's avowed sexual harassment, Bill Cosby's rapes, Matt Lauer's office dungeon button, Charlie Rose's bathrobe – they have a choice. They can tell advertisers, networks, publications and studios that they will no longer be willing to become violent career consumers. Money talks. Voters may signal or decide by vote that Roy Moore will not become a Senator, Blake Fahrenthold should not remain in Congress and Eric Schneiderman no longer deserves to be Attorney General of New York.
A Supreme Court judge is a different matter. Anita Hill and her testimony against Clarence Thomas are now recognized as extremely credible, but Thomas remains on the evidence bench, irrefutable evidence that once power is obtained, can be retained and even considered a right. It is reassuring for so many men and people invested in their power even at much lower levels. Hey, if a guy like Brett Kavanaugh can be named to the Supreme Court after the testimony of a woman like Christine Blasey Ford, flirting with trainees is definitely not an automatic disqualification for this director of the marketing promotion, is not it?
When #MeToo's detractors decry women's ability to "ruin a man's life" by telling the truth about what he's done, they do not really want to lose a specific job, which is not the case. Is not in itself a shattering event. After all, Charlie Rose could simply retire to the Un-Hamptons and play tennis all day by telling the devil a show on the network. Yet, the waters of the return have been put to the test. Louis C.K could film his stand-up routines and sell them directly to the site he has already created for that purpose instead of sneaking into the comedy scene. But at this point, he would be courting an incel / MRA public for his downloads rather than Emmy voters, and he will not see this as an equal trade.
What they dread – and unleash – is loss of status. Now that the behavior of men can color their reputation enough to affect their career or the prospects for their rise, it is not surprising that it is considered a kind of apocalypse. They are treated as women, for the love of god, and I think we can all agree that it is unacceptable!
Kavanaugh's confirmation will do many things in the long run. Along the way, it reassures the men and people invested in their power that their status is safe. Status confers power, regardless of the ability of each to handle it. Who are the women to ask men like Brett Kavanaugh to give theirs? More likely than not, we will find out.
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