Kavanaugh And Night Terrors

I am going to confess to you today. I am going to confess that I went to bed last night quite depressed. Indeed, desolate. I woke up this morning the same way. I was, and am, despairing because of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. Last night, I knew that the GOP would attempt to ram through his confirmation, in spite of the powerful and (at times) chilling testimony of Dr. Ford, the Republicans would not wait, that they would hurry on and on, and put a man into the highest court of the land who should not be trusted in the least with the destinies of the nation.

This morning’s news has done nothing to reassure me. It is clear that the Republicans, those new Reactionaries who detest all that has to do with democracy, will do all they can to create a Kavanaugh court. A court which, I fear, will harm us as a culture, and do much to frustrate our national goals, damage our integrity, and humiliate us before the world and before history.

Yet, slowly, I have regained a certain balance. If I am not happy, if I have not escaped my depression, at least I am no longer quite as despondent as I was. The reasons? Well, several. First, Kavanaugh’s confirmation is not assured. Perhaps a miracle will occur. And second, the news this morning reveals the growing fury of an American people who know that their will is being ignored. Even the American Bar Association has called for further investigation into Kavanaugh’s past.

But, maybe most of all, I am less blue because I recall that we knew that this was happening. We knew that, from the moment of Trump’s election, he and his enablers would do enormous harm to us…as a nation, a culture, and a people. And we knew that it would take us long years of work to undo what he and they had done.

This… Kavanaugh’s presence on the Court…is just another example. Kavanaugh will render judgment after judgment, decisions which will be misogynistic or racist or anti-labor, or all these at the same time. And all that we will be able to do is wait him out…wait for him to retire or die, or to be impeached, or to be outvoted if we can control the Presidency and the Congress for the next few decades.

So, in an odd way, we have lost nothing. We have had no surprises. We knew what was coming, and we were prepared for it.

Ah, but there’s the rub. Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, awful as that would be, will only reaffirm our mission. It will even, curiously enough, energize us. We will re-enter the conflict without illusions. We will know that we must fight, and will fight, and in the end, will win.

Thus, Kavanaugh is irrelevant. He is merely one more blemish on the hideous features of this administration. What matters more is…us.

We, on the Progressive Left, who will battle tirelessly and endlessly…and, even if it takes a century…will triumph…

To reclaim America for democracy.

And, more important still, for simple human decency.

mjt