The Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination is thankfully wrapping up today, as it has hijacked most of the news for the last 4-6 weeks. Congratulations to the Kavanaugh family in achieving a position at the top level of his profession.
Like is the case with most disasters, it’s good to review what happened and maybe learn some things.
The bedrock principle of being innocent until proven guilty is on life support. Consider that there has been no formal report brought to any of the local police. There has been no one under penalty of perjury who has corroborated Ms. Ford’s account. This is basically a he-said, she-said issue which is not enough to convict anyone of a crime. Despite the fact that most of the people familiar with what took place had no recollection of Ms. Ford’s account, many assumed Kavanaugh to be guilty. This is not the way the justice system is supposed to work in this country. Guilt of a crime must be proven, and it wasn’t in this case. The problem is that for many, is about political advancement and not justice or truth. Which brings me to the second thing to learn…
Truth is not relevant for a sizable segment of the American population. Kavanaugh was considered guilty of sexual assault by many people and for various reasons. It did not matter that there was no corroborating evidence of her claim. Without the standard of truth, we basically turn into a society led my mob rule. We got a good idea of what that looks like in this case.
Both Kavanaugh and Ford were the victimized. Kavanaugh because he was nominated by Trump. Ford, was talked into do this, she did not want it to become public, and was used by those in the political machine. Both of them will be affected long term because of political radicals. To Ford’s credit, now that it’s over, she said through her lawyer that she will no longer pursue the case and does not want Kavanaugh to be impeached down the road.
If this is going to be the standard going forward, where we continue to devour each other and the foundations of truth and innocent until proven guilty continue to erode, America will be in trouble.
News in Context 