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orrin hatch
How Dare She Unsettle Us?
As Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, Brett Kavanaugh et al, undermine women’s latest efflorescence toward equality, Dr Ford highlighted essential elements of ubiquitous toxic patriarchy. And she did so from the epicenter that dispenses male power
Oct 02, 2018
An intense week of riveting cultural moments amplified by assorted news media. Is he lying under oath to get on the Supreme Court? Is she a pawn of the Democrats? Is Lindsey Graham melting down or showboating? Is Jeff Flake a flake?
I appreciate the weeklong reprieve as the FBI investigates.
Uncounted numbers of women around the world and more than 20 million Americans followed Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Most victimized women haven't a snowball's chance in hell of being heard in the US Senate Judiciary (or their country's equivalent), but women around the world watch and support our American sisters. Lightyears ahead of women in other parts of the world in publicly acknowledging sexual violence and indignity at the hands of men, we know that as American women go so go we--eventually...We hope.
As Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, Brett Kavanaugh et al, undermine women's latest efflorescence toward equality, Dr. Ford highlighted essential elements of ubiquitous toxic patriarchy. And she did so from the epicenter that dispenses male power.
Enter serendipity
Perpetuating entrenched power means following a cultural script. Yet, now and again the extraordinary human heart urges someone off script. Then, serendipity happens. This time, serendipity brought together Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Ana Maria Archila, and Maria Gallagher. Had it been Sens. Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, or Lindsey Graham in that elevator, Brett Kavanaugh would be on his way to fulfilling his Trump-designated role as president's protector on the Supreme Court.
Throughout Ford's testimony and Kavanaugh's dissembling, Flake's demeanor suggested his discomfort. He admitted he was "unsettled" although not discomforted or unsettled enough to go against his Republican brothers. He'd agreed to vote for Kavanaugh when Ana's and Maria's elevator pitch rattled his defenses. Soon after, he conferred with Senator Coons, a colleague and a Democrat... and together they made history.
Pundits judge, even scorn Flake; the few progressives who acknowledge his courage do so dismissively. Yes, the guy is conservative. Many people are. (Believing that conservatism/Republican--or liberalism/Democrat--is intrinsically offensive describes our nation's current polarization). Flake didn't transform into Liberal Man (he's admitted that were he not retiring from the Senate there's "Not a chance," he'd buck his party's line) but cut the guy some slack. Bucking the trend is tough. The payoff is heart-felt rather than monetized.
Transformation is tough. Lasting transformation, the kind that results in spiritual growth after reevaluating one's Self and culture, is iterative, discouraging, uncertain. It requires patience, compassion, nerve, and a generous spirit.
What the...?
Imagine you're a privileged white male who's learned, implicitly, and accepted, explicitly, that white male culture will protect you, no matter what, if you stick to the script. If you can't imagine that, recall Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, and Brett Kavanaugh during the hearing. After lifetimes, from 53 to 85 years, of things going your way, of never facing discomfort, powerlessness, or indifference, a woman, a lesser being, goes off--and stays off --the script of male-hegemony. Ford, herself white and privileged, stood in their bastion and spoke against their version of truth, nobility, and right-thinking. This, moreover, after Orrin Hatch described her an "attractive witness" and "pleasing." This is how she repays his gallantry?
Interruptions to the dominant narrative-- this "culture"--present enormous disorientations in individual and collective psyches. Interruptions rattle, demand one think creatively and on one's feet, pose dilemmas, and threaten change. Faced with a Dr. Ford, chinks appear in the system and dominant beneficiaries respond by stalling, dismissing, shoring up, protecting the system by feverishly applying that which has worked in the past. Cover up. Undermine, but not too openly. Humiliate, but not too openly. Rage. (Don't cry.) Then emulate Donald Trump and "punch back ten times harder," search and destroy, wage war.
Ironically, if Judge Brett Kavanaugh had admitted abusing alcohol he'd already be on the Supreme Court. (George W. Bush, a fellow Yalie, admitted, "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible," and he became a two-term president.) But admitting to "youthful hijinks" doesn't sit well with Kavanaugh. Gripped by self-righteousness, he sees himself the way his culture portrays masculinity: boot strapping, busting his butt, athletic, charitable. Reports among the thousands of pages from earlier investigations suggest Kavanaugh tends to "dissemble," a culturally appropriate way of saying he lies. If he'd admitted his high school and college years included booze-addled blurs, and if Ford's claims were true (they're not! He's "innocent") he must have been drunk (implicitly not responsible). If he'd expressed shame, if he'd apologized, he would be on the Supreme Court. That's the power of male culture. Instead, he foisted a false narrative and "dissembled" under oath about Maryland's legal drinking age, that he never ralphed, about the meaning of "boof" and "devil's triangle." He raged. He cried. Now he and his supporters seek to search and destroy.
Cultural baggage
Brett Kavanaugh is a culturally damaged creature of toxic male hegemony who lacks a broad understanding of and pleasure in our complex, multicultural world. He's confused --outraged--about why this is being done to him. He's played the culture game right: "had no connections" to assist him into Yale, "worked his butt off," excelled at academics and athletics, attended church, enjoyed the occasional beer, and kept his calendars from high school and college to prove it. His version of American culture (Grassley's, Hatch's, and Graham's, too), the only version that matters, entitles him to his spot on the Supreme Court. He deserves it. The job of lesser beings--regular Americans--is to get out of his way.
Damaged himself, Kavanaugh is also a highly damaging man. He can wreak havoc. He can harm. We, the People, the Supreme Court, our sisters and brothers beyond our borders, are entitled to, deserve, a well-rounded, judicious Justice. That's not Brett Kavanaugh.
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The Strength of Kavanaugh's Accusers Is Truly Amazing
I know what it’s like to seek justice against all odds. The fact that women keep doing it speaks volumes.
Sep 26, 2018
Christine Blasey Ford has shown remarkable bravery in speaking out about an attempted rape she experienced over 35 years ago.
But it's hard not to fear what comes next. She will tell her story -- one she no doubt remembers with painful clarity -- but there will be no smoking gun, no undeniable forensic evidence, and in the end, Brett Kavanaugh may well be confirmed as the newest Justice on the Supreme Court.
Ford's detractors will say she cannot be believed because she was drinking. They will say her memory is unreliable. They will ask why she waited so long to come forward, not realizing that questions like that are exactly why.
What they won't ask is how she found the courage to come forward at all.
Twenty-seven years ago, Anita Hill testified in front of the same Senate Judiciary Committee (including some of the same members) that she had been sexually harassed by then-nominee Clarence Thomas. She was accused of "fantasy" and even "flat-out perjury." It was suggested that she had fabricated her accusations based on scenes from The Exorcist.
The true story here is that women find the strength to face their abusers even in the most unfair and unwelcoming of circumstances.
The lives of Hill, her family, and her supporters were threatened, and Thomas was confirmed shortly afterward.
Then there was Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Paula Jones, who all accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. Then there was Erica Kinsman, whose rapist was awarded the most prestigious title in college football. Then there was Emily Doe, whose assailant Brock Turner spent only three months in jail despite being convicted for assaulting her while she was unconscious.
In between, there were countless women whose stories went unheard and whose demands for justice went unanswered.
Two years ago, I joined the ranks of public survivors by openly naming my rapist. It was the hardest decision I have ever made, and if I'm being honest, I don't know that I would make it again. Being assaulted was painful, scary, and confusing, but at least I could choose to disclose only to those I knew would believe and support me.
Seeking justice was like opening the box on Schrodinger's cat. I had always known it was likely that the system would fail me, but it wasn't until I tried that I had to actually live through it.
In the end I, like so many women before me, was refused justice. A Trump-appointed judge dismissed my case with a wave of his gavel and the world kept spinning. It's a strange feeling to watch this story play out again at the highest level of the same system that failed me.
Not only has Kavanaugh been repeatedly and credibly accused of sexual assault, the president who appointed him has freely admitted committing it himself. How will other survivors find the courage to come forward if justice isn't served at the very top of our so-called justice system?
Still, somehow they do. What's truly amazing here is the strength of Kavanaugh's accusers.
From the moment she came forward, Ford has been attacked by right-wing politicians and pundits. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who was also present during Anita Hill's testimony, has suggested that Ford is "confused" and "mixed up." Even worse, Hatch has said that even if Blasey Ford's allegations are true, attempted rape shouldn't bar Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has called the allegations "unsubstantiated smears." Even the president weighed in, calling the accusation a political attack.
Ford, meanwhile, has had to leave her home after death threats were leveled at her family.
Despite all this, Deborah Ramirez -- another accuser -- came forward. A third brave survivor is considering joining them. The true story here is that women find the strength to face their abusers even in the most unfair and unwelcoming of circumstances.
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The Grumpy Old Men of the Senate: Time for This Movie to Fade to Black
Senate Republicans are in the clutches of misogyny, money and male pattern blindness
Sep 21, 2018
Call me a sentimental fool (pipe down out there) but I keep waiting for the big Frank Capra moment that rationally, I know may never come - you know, like the climax of Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington when the corrupt, patrician senator played by Claude Rains, finally undone by the truth told by Senator Jefferson Smith (earnestly played by Jimmy Stewart), tries to shoot himself.
"I'm not fit to be a senator! I'm not fit to live!" he cries. "Every word that boy said about... me and graft and the rotten political corruption of my state is true!"
Yeah, well, in real life you and I know that's probably not going to happen - at least for now. All you have to do is take one look at the Republican senators bloviating on Capitol Hill to know that among the lot of them any chance of self-examination or repentance or especially truth-telling is about as likely as Justin Bieber being named to the College of Cardinals.
This week, as the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation disaster has further unfolded, they've all been behaving true to form. There's Majority Leader McConnell, that sanctimonious mock turtle of prevarication and faux rectitude tut-tutting - inaccurately -- about Democrats bringing forth an accusation of assault against a teenage Kavanaugh "at the 11th hour." And here's Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley doing his damnedest to make any hearing confrontation between Kavanaugh and his accuser - if it happens -- as limited and belittling to her as possible.
Orrin Hatch says Christine Blasey Ford, "this woman, whoever she is, is mixed up... mistaken." And Lindsey Graham snarkily asks who paid for her lie detector test and declares, "This has been a drive-by shooting when it comes to Kavanaugh. I'll listen to the lady, but we're going to bring this to a close." Move along, nothing to see here, don't bother your pretty little heads.
It's all so classy - no wonder Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono told reporters Tuesday, "I just want to say to the men in this country, just shut up and step up. Do the right thing, for a change." (Mitch McConnell was passing by and she told him to do the right thing, too; it's amazing he didn't burst into flames.)
Their behavior has been disgraceful, and Hirono was right to call it out on ABC News Wednesday, saying Grassley's claims that the committee has done everything possible to contact Ford as "such bulls__t I can hardly stand it."
Yes, it's a regular League of Extraordinary Gentlemen down there in DC, each of them worth every penny to their corporate sponsors and the wealthy donors who love their GOP incumbents, so reliably pliant.
Which is why in the middle of this male misogynistic madness it's refreshing that when it comes to campaign cash at least, over the last few days a couple of those rich contributors have been acting a little bit Capra-like, as if the mean old Lionel Barrymore banker of Capra's It's a Wonderful Life was making some attempt to morph into the Jimmy Stewart of the good old Bailey Bros. Building & Loan.
They've embraced the kind of decency so lacking in the Kavanaugh debate and each decided to stop giving money to the Republican Party. These aren't your run-of-the mill give a hundred bucks and get a MAGA hat type of donors. Leslie H. Wexner is the richest man in Ohio, the biggest Republican contributor in the state, CEO of L Brands, the company that owns Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works. In 2015, he gave half a million to Jeb Bush's presidential campaign and three months later his wife gave a million to Ohio Governor John Kasich.
"I just decided I'm no longer a Republican," he told a panel on civility at the Columbus Partnership and YPO Leadership Summit. "I won't support this nonsense in the Republican Party."
Last year, Wexner said he felt "dirty" and "ashamed" by Donald Trump's remarks after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager Seth Klarman, New England's biggest donor to the Republican Party -- he gave nearly $3 million to Republicans in the 2016 elections -- says that by Election Day, he may have given as much as $20 million to Democratic candidates; more, perhaps than George Soros.
He told columnist Bari Weiss at The New York Times, "We need to turn the House and Senate as a check on Donald Trump and his runaway presidency.... I'm stretching far beyond what I usually do."
Klarman thinks we're in an "emergency," that "democracy is at stake." Trump is plagued by "ill temper, chronic impulsivity, limited attention span, ignorance of history and flawed judgment."
Further, he's angered by the massive tax cut and the addition of $1.5 trillion to the deficit. Republicans "were supposed to be the fiscally responsible party... Whatever irresponsible fiscal things the Democrats do won't be worse than what the Republicans have already done."
All of which brings us back to the august United States Senate and the powerful words and proposed deeds of a member who's not one of the Republican majority or, gasp, a mossback male.
Over this past weeks, lost in the thicket of news about Trump, Kavanaugh, Robert Mueller, Paul Manafort, Russia and Hurricane Florence, Senator Elizabeth Warren has been steadfastly letting voters, corporate America and members of Congress know that that whether she runs for president or not, she has some serious changes in mind.
In a speech at the National Press Club last month, she noted that only eighteen percent of the American people trust their government to do the right thing because "our government systematically favors the rich over the poor, the donor class over the working class, the well-connected over the disconnected. This is deliberate, and we need to call this what it is -- corruption, plain and simple."
She proposed a set of reforms, including a lifetime ban on lobbying by ex-presidents and members of Congress, an end to the revolving door between government and business jobs, preventing federal legislators and White House staff from owning individual stocks (they could have government-supervised investment accounts) and a federal rule that all presidential candidates must release their tax returns. What a concept.
A week before, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, she outlined her Accountable Capitalism Act, which proposes that "corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue... require corporate directors to consider the interests of all major corporate stakeholders -- not only shareholders -- in company decisions."
The bill also would allow the employees of a company to elect at least forty percent of board members, and "at least 75% of directors and shareholders would need to approve before a corporation could make any political expenditures."
Finally, just to add one more twist of the knife in the overindulged financial community's back, the senior senator from Massachusetts used the tenth anniversary of the global fiscal meltdown to talk up her Ending Too Big to Jail Act -- an attempt to stave off another crash that probably would be even more devastating than 2008. It would, she said, break up the big banks and "force law-breaking bankers to trade in their pin-striped suits for orange jumpsuits."
With such talk about the land, it's no coincidence that when a woman like Christine Blasey Ford comes forward to speak out against a man she says attacked her, a man close to receiving lifetime membership on our highest court, Senate Republican men are nonplussed and enraged, screaming because they may not get their way as they have for most of the last 20 plus months.
But that scream may be a death rattle. Warren and so many of the other women in Congress - not to mention the record-setting number of women running for office at every level of government this year - may be the ones to help pull us out of the swamp of Washington sleaze, corporate greed and, you should excuse the expression, male pattern blindness. They may be the actors who guide us toward that Frank Capra happy ending, the moment in the movie when those in charge finally have to face the truth of their deceit and rotten political corruption.
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