After nearly nine hours of Senate testimony by Supreme Court nominee
Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, the public is no
closer to knowing what did or did not happen over thirty years ago,
when Ford alleges Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Kavanaugh’s future
as the nominee now depends on the outcome of an FBI investigation to
which Senate Republicans agreed on Friday.
The allegations of sexual assault have become the sole issue in
Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and the Democratic Party and the media have
presented Kavanaugh’s guilt on this matter as a foregone conclusion. The
focus of the proceedings reflects the political priorities of the
Democratic Party and the interests of the affluent social layers to
which it is appealing.
There are some who, though uncomfortable with the abrogation of the
presumption of innocence that is characteristic of the Democrats’
treatment of the sexual assault allegations, are eager to seize on any
opportunity to keep Kavanaugh off the court. The ends, as the saying
goes, supposedly justify the means. They should be warned: This is bad
politics, bad strategy and even worse tactics. There are political
consequences to such efforts to confuse and cover up the real issues
confronting the working class.
A central aim of the Democrats’ strategy in the Kavanaugh hearings
has been to obscure the most important class issues. They adopt the tone
of phony moral outrage over the three-decade-old allegation while
expressing no similar anger or even concern over the crimes committed by
the American ruling class throughout the world.
Not a day goes by where the US military is not dropping bombs or
launching drone strikes, with the death toll from the “war on terror”
well over one million. Thirteen thousand immigrant children are
currently locked up in internment camps. Thousands of workers in the US
die each year from industrial accidents and work-related illnesses. When
Democratic Senator Cory Booker complains about the “patriarchy,” he
looks past the fact that the fall in life expectancy in the working
class is largely driven by alcoholism, drug abuse and depression among
men.
-- Eric London, "The political issues in the Senate hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh" (WSWS).