Kavanaugh nomination clears key procedural hurdle
The Senate votes 51-49 to move forward with President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Even when political battles reach a fever pitch and each side exchanges insults and charges of wrongdoing, there’s a long American tradition of not attacking the underage children of opponents. In a disgusting display, a far-left cartoonist has violated that tradition by ridiculing Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s 10-year-old daughter for praying to God.
Unfortunately, this is yet another symptom of the sad state our no-holds-barred political conflicts today. The ends justify the means, political activists loudly proclaim. Honesty, common courtesy and basic human decency be damned. We are now in a state of total political war, according to these folks.
The cartoonist, Chris Britt, depicts Kavanaugh’s daughter Liza offering the following prayer: “Dear God, please forgive my angry, lying, alcoholic father for sexually assaulting Dr. (Christine) Ford.”
This is truly beyond the pale. Britt deserves condemnation for picking on a 10-year-old girl and putting lies in her mouth – but if he has children, I would certainly never stoop to his level and attack them along with him.
No matter how fierce the political combat gets, we should all be able to agree that the young children of those attacked should be left alone and treated as noncombatants.
The context of the cartoon is a statement made by Judge Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I intend no ill will to Dr. Ford and her family,” Kavanaugh said. “The other night, Ashley (Kavanaugh’s wife) and my daughter Liza said their prayers. And little Liza, all of 10 years old, said to Ashley, ‘We should pray for the woman.’ That’s a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old. We mean no ill will.”
“The woman” Kavanaugh referred to was Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her some 36 years ago when both were in high school. Kavanaugh has vehemently stated under oath that he never sexually assaulted Ford or anyone else. And he has denied the claim in Britt’s cartoon that he is an “angry, lying alcoholic.”
Importantly, a new FBI report viewed by senators Thursday and Friday said the agency could find absolutely no people or evidence to corroborate Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh attacked her. Neither could the Judiciary Committee. Neither could some of the top investigative journalists in the country, who have devoted enormous amounts of time and effort looking for anything to back up Ford’s allegations.
To Chris Britt, I’d like to say three things.
First, you should be ashamed of yourself for mocking a child’s bedtime prayers for her father. It’s beneath you or anyone to descend to this depth.
Second, your assumption that Judge Kavanaugh is guilty of being an “angry, lying alcoholic” who has committed sexual assault says he is guilty unless he can prove himself innocent. This violates the most basic concept of fairness in our legal system.
Third, if one person steps forward tomorrow and accuses you of wrongdoing and criminal conduct back when you were in high school or college – without a shred of corroboration – should you be condemned and lose your job? Should you be barred from holding any position of responsibility for the rest of your life? Should we automatically believe that any and all accusations made against you without any evidence are the Gospel truth that we cannot question?
Chris Britt is by no means the only offender. It’s become popular to mock people’s religious faith and use it to score political points.
We experienced this sort of Christian shaming recently when NBC sports commentator Tony Dungy came under fire for commending the faith of Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles. We also experienced it when social media flash mobs insulted Christians who called for public prayer in the aftermath of mass shootings, natural disasters and other harrowing events.
Anyone is entitled to be an atheist if he or she wishes, and believe that prayer is a silly and useless ritual. But at the same time, everyone should respect the sincere religious beliefs of others – even if they hold none of those beliefs themselves. This is simple civility.
Of course, incivility is not limited to cartoonists – and it is bipartisan.
President Obama, for example, gave himself permission to dismiss an entire category of Americans – working-class conservatives – as bitter and somewhat dim-witted people who cling to guns and religion to help deal with their frustrations.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called supporters of her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, a “basketful of deplorables.”
Not to be outdone, candidate Trump said many illegal immigrants from Mexico are rapists bringing crime to our country. And Trump absurdly denied that the late Sen. John McCain was a war hero, despite the heroic and unselfish service that McCain rendered to defend our nation when he served as a Navy combat pilot and his enormous suffering as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than five years.
And I could give you many other examples of insulting statements and tweets by Trump and other politicians of every political persuasion – and by people protesting against them – that would have been better left unsaid.
On top of this, it is commonplace for Americans today to fill the comment sections of news websites and political blogs – or the “status update” portion of their Facebook wall – with vulgar, dehumanizing and hateful speech toward fellow citizens, journalists and politicians.
America’s public discourse has too often become a dysfunctional travesty where people trade insults instead of ideas and would rather engage in angry confrontations than seek to compromise and find solutions to the many challenges facing us today.
Most of us, in one way or another, are complicit. And each of us, in our own way, is responsible.
Maintaining the present course of the political wars assures the further weakening of our nation. It represents a monumental failure to seize the moment and demonstrate the significance of the American experiment.
As such, this is no time to wait for politicians to restore strength and civility to the national political debate. Many of our elected officials are poll-sniffers and tealeaf readers who are acting on cue because they think we want them to behave like idiots and partisan street fighters.
So it’s up to us – everyday Americans – to challenge the dominant ways of speaking and acting in the public square. It’s up to us to demonstrate good will toward the people with whom we disagree. It’s up to us to stop voting for politicians or donating to political groups that undermine the long-term health of our nation.
If we take these steps, then maybe our politicians will begin to lead in a manner worthy of Americans and our world responsibility, and to determine that the further degradation of our great nation will not happen on their watch.
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