Insidious is the man. Insidious is his pollution of the F.B.I., whose former director, James Comey, he fired after Comey refused to show “loyalty.” Loyalty in this instance meant willingness to shelve, at Trump’s demand, an investigation into dealings between his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Russia.

Now the F.B.I. — given a week to investigate what happened 36 years ago between Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford — concludes an investigation on which the lives of our children and grandchildren may hinge in less than a week. It does so as Trump, speaking behind the seal of the president of the United States, unloads his bile on Dr. Blasey.

Contagious is the man. Contagious is Trump’s view that judges should be agents of those who appoint them rather than the independent guarantors of America’s constitutional democracy. Trump wants loyalty from Kavanaugh, too, and the angry, emotional testimony that the judge provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee carried this subliminal message: “I am one of yours.” It was right out of the Trump playbook.

The Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of the rule of law. It was conceived as a critical part of the political system, not as just another venue for ordinary, ugly, polarized politics. Kavanaugh’s confirmation would be the capstone to a shift in that direction. Courts were meant to be America’s great levelers, not their great dividers and inciters.