Commentary
This country just had to endure the spectacle of a judge who’s already been through six background checks and numerous confirmation hearings since 1993 have to go on TV to deny he raped or attempted to rape women back in his high school and college days. He also had to specifically deny that he ran a group of men in college that gang-raped several women.
We were all treated to this travesty because Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and their media allies waited until Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing was over to begin dropping multiple sexual assault allegations that they had been deliberately hiding for at least six weeks.
The entire country has been watching aghast as one of it’s two chief political parties continues to demonstrate just how unhinged it’s top leadership has become. Not only must the spectacle of what this Democratic leadership has put Kavanaugh and his family through never be forgotten, it must also never be repeated.
It’s clear at this point what the Democratic strategy is: to go so low, to become so vile in their relentless attacks on the character of any nominee that in the future, potential picks such as Amy Coney Barrett will rush to tell Trump, “Please remove my name from your list of Supreme Court candidates. I simply cannot subject myself or my family to this kind of sick trauma.”
If anybody thought the Clarence Thomas hearings of 1991 was as bad as it could get, the last three weeks have shown just how much worse American political discourse can become. With Thomas’s nomination, the Democrats waited until the last minute after every other avenue had failed to stop Thomas’s march to the Supreme Court to trot out Anita Hill to make claims of sexual harassment. The transparent gambit failed, and a Senate–which the Democrats controlled at the time–confirmed Thomas to the Court.
Twenty-seven years later, Democrats have reached the point they will wait until literally the eleventh hour to begin dropping unsubstantiated allegations that the nominee is a sexual predator. This is where the Democratic Party is at in 2018. And this cannot be allowed to continue.
If top Democrats are allowed to just walk blithely away from what they did here, you can be sure they will try it again. As I said in a recent column, until a high price is paid for engaging in this vile behavior, Democrats will continue doing transparently fake stunts like this.
Due process and the presumption of innocence are foundational principles of our legal system here in the United States. There are countries where it’s up to the accused person to prove their innocence, but America has never been one of those countries. For Democratic Party leadership to begin very publicly questioning whether people like Brett Kavanaugh should have a presumption of innocence or any right to due process is an incredible benchmark of just how far that political party has descended into Fascism.
Since Americans prefer actual democracy and republicanism to actual fascistic practice, this present Democratic Party can never be allowed to resume political power in this country ever again.
In recent days top Democratic leaders have blatantly claimed in live televised interviews that Brett Kavanaugh bears the burden of proof, not his accuser, essentially arguing he has no presumption of innocence and is not entitled to any due process. Both Senator Mazie Hirono [D-HA] and Chris Coons [D-DE] stated that despite the fact all four named witnesses provided by Kavanaugh’s accuser have publicly gone on the record to deny witnessing any sexual assault, Kavanaugh bears the burden of proving his innocence.
Hirono even went on during her interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper to bluntly state that Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy strips him of any presumption of innocence.
If Democrats think they are going to get very far with this fun new strategy of pretending conservatives & Republicans don’t have the same due process rights and presumption of innocence that Democrats enjoy, a profound and important lesson is about to be taught to them.
Whatever official remedies are instituted in the Senate to ensure this revolting spectacle is never repeated, there needs to be an accounting for a political party that has embraced these kind of tactics. And that accounting can only come from people within the Democratic Party.
How can people of good conscience watch this farce unfold and remain passive in the face of what is being done to a good man and his family? I have no doubt many people who have voted Democrat in the past are right now asking themselves, “How can I continue to be part of a political party that engages in this kind of behavior?”.
Over the past two years, many former Democrats had already reached their limit and had walked away. There is even a major rally scheduled in Washington DC, to be held from October 26-28 in which people intend to share their #WalkAway stories.
How many people will be there, I wonder, who only walked away at last after watching the fiasco this Democratic leadership has turned these Kavanaugh confirmation hearings into?
Brian Cates is a political pundit and writer based in South Texas and the author of “Nobody Asked For My Opinion … But Here It Is Anyway!” He can be reached on Twitter at @drawandstrike
From The Epoch Times
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NTD.com
