Brett Kavanaugh and the role—once again—of sexual misconduct allegations in American politics
19 September 2018
Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the US Supreme Court, is a hardened, longtime political reactionary, a mouthpiece for powerful moneyed interests and an enemy of the working class.
The principal author of the Kenneth Starr report to Congress on the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton sex scandal, Kavanaugh was at the heart of the effort in 1998 to stage a political coup against a twice-elected president. A few years later, as a lawyer in George W. Bush’s White House, Kavanaugh helped formulate the administration’s unconstitutional and criminal detention and interrogation (i.e., torture) policies.
Since his appointment to the US Court of Appeals in 2006, Kavanaugh has relentlessly pursued a right-wing agenda, ruling again and again in defense of big business, against abortion rights and environmental regulation, in favor of authoritarian and anti-democratic measures. He is a thoroughly repugnant figure who, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, would solidify its ultra-right character and direction.
No one could have less sympathy for Kavanaugh than we do.
However, the New York Times, Washington Post, leading Democratic Party officials and other establishment elements are attempting to block Kavanaugh’s nomination on the basis, once again, of an allegation of sexual misconduct, which in the absence of corroborating evidence remains nothing more than an allegation.
To a large extent, the current campaign is an effort to bury the most significant political issues involved in his candidacy for the Court.
Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, accuses Kavanaugh and a friend of sexually assaulting her…