The Ring of Truth

The Ring of Truth

It felt a little bit like getting ready for the “big game.”  I was up early, getting everything else that needed to be done, done. I made a big breakfast, got the right TV stations up, and at 10:00 am I sat down to watch history.  Gavel to gavel, taking breaks only when Chairman Grassley did, I watched the Kavanaugh hearing from Grassley’s first statement to Kamala Harris’s last question.  It was an inflection point in America, both about our current crisis in politics and the Supreme Court, and in culture.

In full disclosure, I am a “liberal Democrat,” and I would prefer Judge Kavanaugh not get on the Court. And I do think the Democrats on the Committee have pulled off the political “play” that Lindsey Graham threw his “hissy fit” about.  Democrats, operating from a two-vote deficit, have done everything they could do to try to stop Kavanaugh’s confirmation.  And before anybody cries “foul,” they better look at Merrick Garland just a couple of years ago.  There are no rules in a “knife fight.”

The Republicans picked the wrong man, and they know it.  There was a reason that Mitch McConnell, the master Republican Senate strategist, wanted anyone on the Federalist Society list besides Kavanaugh.  Whether they had whiffs of the teenage scandal I don’t know, but they knew that Kavanaugh was the most controversial of their choices. But President Trump chose Kavanaugh, no doubt because of his views on Presidential power and immunity from prosecution, and, to quote the judge himself, they are “reaping the whirlwind.”

But yesterday wasn’t about the politics of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.  Yesterday was about whether a man should be accountable for his actions as a boy.  It was about whether we should allow a man to lie to the Senate, and the country, about his past for political expediency, or whether we should hold him accountable.  It was about truth.

The Judiciary Committee determined that the process of deciding about Judge Kavanaugh would be made only by hearing Dr. Ford and the Judge; making a decision using just what they had to say.  They chose not to have other witnesses, including the one eye-witness to what happened. They chose to decide just on the statements of the two principals, and we too, as a nation, are forced to decide on those terms.

My last job before retiring, was “judging” the actions of teenagers.  As a Dean of Students in a 1200 kid high school, I dealt with everything from spitballs to rape.  When a “real” victim told their story, you could hear truth in the details, in the feelings, in the “out-of-body” view, and the clear emotional terror.  Truth has a finality, and a clarity, and a simplicity that all of the fiction a Dean of Students hears the rest of the day is lacking.

Truth:  when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford stepped up to the table, shaking, and raised her hand to be sworn in, it was clear we were hearing truth. She answered questions carefully, effectively, and without evasion.  She told what she knew, and clearly acknowledged what she did not know.  She was an “unimpeachable” witness:  and it was clear when she was done that the harsh laughter of teenage boys echoed not just in her memory, but throughout the national conscious.

And as Dean of Students I dealt with “entitled” students:  those who felt that due to their parents, or their connections, or their membership on a team or in a social group; they were entitled to do whatever they wanted. When that entitlement was questioned; the result was often disbelief and anger; outrage that their “standing” was questioned.  It was called the “good kid” defense:  “I’m a good kid, I couldn’t do anything wrong, and if I did, I should be excused.”

Outrage:  when Brett Kavanaugh walked into the hearing room, shaking with rage, choking with tears; he was demanding his “anointed place.” His insolence and disrespect towards the Senators, his evasiveness answering questions, and his clear terror of an FBI investigation that would include his teenage friend Mark Judge:  this did not have the ring of truth.

The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have set the terms.  We can only decide by listening to these two, Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. We are not allowed to search further, hear testimony, or investigate what happened.

On that basis the answer was clear:  truth versus entitlement.  Truth should win out, and Judge Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court.  But this is not a high school, it is the highest stakes political “game” in the United States; so I don’t really expect that truth will win.  What I do expect is that America will see truth denied; and vote accordingly.

 

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