Our Democracy

Brett Kavanaugh is probably well qualified, academically, for the Supreme Court. 

I don't know this, but I grant him this. 

But that is not my problem with him. I did not like what I saw as he testified during the spectacle we witnessed last week.  I am a citizen of this country and I feel that I’ve been railroaded today. None of my concerns have been validated by those who represent me.  And neither have theirs.  That’s because one political party holds power in all three branches of government.

The Republicans who control our Senate, have virtually ignored every dissenting opinion in Congress in order to get this guy into a life-long post as Justice. The FBI “investigation” begun on Friday last, turned into a sham and produced no new information. This is because the White House orchestrated the parameters around which the FBI was allowed to work.

Today the Senate votes on cloture, a preliminary vote that does not mean much as far as I can tell. It is said to move the vote forward, however; in other words, the Senators will vote again tomorrow.  According to this vote today, Kavanaugh has won cloture 51 to 49 and Senators like Susan Collins of Maine, having falsely agonized over their decision now show their true stripes.  Party over conscience.  She turns out to be like all the rest and her declaration of why she will vote yes tomorrow makes it obvious.  

Kavanaugh does not appear to be a nice person, at least as he has represented himself on TV. His demeanor as many have stated after viewing him last week, is not what one would call judicial. He has an ugly temper and went on a rant about the Democrats’ revenge for his role assisting Ken Starr in the Clinton hearings. I don’t remember this, but it was this unnecessarily snarly defense that so outraged many of us who watched. 

The allegations of early drinking and sexually abusive behavior are one thing, but as bad as they sound, we cannot hold a seventeen year old accountable for bad behavior 36 years after those incidents. I believe it is, however, an indication of character, displayed with a vituperative and arrogant surliness not becoming anyone seeking public office. He is not seventeen today and he must own this.    

It is his record (and writings) on the power of the presidency that worries me most:  as I understand it, Kavanaugh believes the presidency is inviolate; ie, the person holding that office can get by with almost anything, including acts against the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, Fraud, Tax Evasion, and can, if it behooves him, even pardon himself.

Our system of “checks and balances” so lovingly set up by our patriotic forefathers, those who believed that the people we sent to Congress to represent us, would be non-partisan and work together for the good of the country, has not been working. There are no "checks" on a runaway Senate controlled by the partisan Mitch McConnell.  

The people we have in Congress, by and large, have little sense of patriotism – love and pride in our system of government.  They are there to enrich themselves and their friends and families.  They are there in order to acquire power and hold on to it – they vote in order to keep themselves in office. (Term limits, anyone?)  What happened to Conscience, Country and lastly Party?   Eh, Lindsey Graham?  

Kavanaugh is one of their kind. 

This man is not fit to sit on the Court.

And they who put him there are not fit to hold a seat in Congress. 

This president will never be impeached. Indeed, he will be pardoned. 

He will pardon himself.