Yesterday, I and many other Americans
were captivated by the Ford/Kavanaugh hearing. The drama was lengthy,
compelling, and riveting. I don’t know about the other viewers, but I was both
fascinated and disgusted by this judiciary circus. I was fascinated by the way
Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh presented themselves. Dr. Ford, with her large,
horn-rimmed glasses riding down her nose, looked a little like that bug-eyed
deer in the headlights. Her anxiety and fear were palpable. Judge Kavanaugh
looked like a victim of Tourette’s with his sniffling and blinking, facial
tics, and frequent sips of water. My impressions of them should have had
nothing to do with their believability, and they didn’t. I found them both to
be believable even though their stories were contradictory. My disgust derived
from the partisanship exhibited by both sides of the aisle. This was supposed
to be a hearing to determine whether or not Judge Kavanaugh should be confirmed
for a seat on the Supreme Court, but apparently the senators were all lined up
beforehand—forty-seven Republicans saying yes, forty-nine Democrats saying no,
and four Republicans saying maybe. My disgust stems from the senators’ nearly
total disregard for the truth. They didn’t care which one was telling the
truth. They had decided their yea or nay well ahead of the hearing on Judge
Kavanaugh, and their decisions were based almost entirely on party affiliation.
Why even bother with a hearing if their minds were already made up? Other than
the four on the fence, was there no one of either party who waited for the
testimony before deciding? And even the four undecideds are probably more
influenced by party pressure or fear of Donald Trump than by a search for
truth. Where are the independent thinkers regardless of their party
affiliation? Is it time for a legitimate third party of independents? Why haven’t
we elected any independents to the Senate? Donald Trump has done so much to
divide us along party lines that a third party might bring us back together. Our
nation and the world witnessed that Trumpian divide in this fascinating yet
disgusting hearing. So, how does the public judge these two unhappy people
whose lives will never be the same after this debacle? It all depends on which
one we found most likable. The fault seems to lie partly in the nearly two
months that were allowed to pass after Dr. Ford’s letter was received. The
other fault is in ignoring any face-to-face testimony from those who support
the stories of Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. Certainly, actually hearing their
testimony would have aided viewers and the senators in their decision to
confirm or deny Kavanaugh’s nomination.
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