I thought I was immune.

I thought I had become inured to the sheer heinousness that is now the hallmark of American politics and the hatefulness that is now America's new identity.

I thought my heart was so used to the horrible tweets, the infighting and back-biting and battles between left and right, that it was all so, well, Thursday.

But I was wrong.

Last week, it was worse.

And watching the Senate Judiciary hearings to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as a U.S. Supreme Court justice made clear why Donald Trump was elected, why Sen. Lindsey Graham yells, why Sen. Chuck Grassley is so danged patronizing.

We are no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. This land is not your land and my land. This land, this government, belongs to hateful people whose wild-eyed rants were once not allowed, whose disdain for the poor and the sick and those who immigrated after their families did, so are not welcome.

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They pretended to listen to Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that Kavanaugh tried to rape her. But it was as if the GOP was a fraternity waiting to induct one of its beer-drinking, fun-loving pledges and these damn women were getting in the way.

That was never clearer than when Kavanaugh was asked whether he would support an FBI investigation, and he paused. A long pause. And you could see every drunken encounter & hidden secret that his friend Mark Judge wrote about in a book flash before Kavanaugh's eyes. In that pause was all that was needed to stop the circus & withdraw his nomination.

But boys will be boys.

Late Friday, Trump ordered a supplemental investigation into the allegations, something the GOP could have done to clear someone they claim is innocent. The senators could have done that themselves, but instead, they boldly raised the flags of entitlement, white privilege and don’t-you-frigging-question-me and tried to rush a confirmation before we could learn too much about Kavanaugh, refusing to swear in Judge, refusing to let the FBI put the matter to rest.

I thought there was no mistreatment of women that would sink lower than the treatment of Anita Faye Hill whose private interview with the FBI was leaked to the press in 1991, leading to several humiliating days testifying before men who were, quite frankly, insensitive creatures who refused to allow her corroborating witnesses to testify and questioned the Yale-educated attorney’s sanity.

I was wrong.

But let’s be clear: We’ve been here before…

… when Sen. Joseph McCarthy hijacked the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee to search for Communists before nine days of hearings in 1947.

… when Sen. Sam Ervin and the Senate Watergate Committee investigated the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington, D.C., questioning witnesses during televised hearings seen by millions over two weeks in 1973.

… when Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) convened the Senate Select Committee, which spent 41 days in 1987 hearing televised testimony about the U.S. selling weapons to Iran to fund Nicaraguan contras and spur the release of hostages.

…… when the 1999 televised impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton resulted in acquittal on major charges, but a contempt of court citation for testifying untruthfully, which led to a $90,000 fine.

…when the 1991 Senate hearings confirming Judge Clarence Thomas for the U.S. Supreme Court were re-opened to hear from Hill.

None, I repeat, none featured a group of men so anti-women, anti-democratic and unfeeling as the group led by Sen. Chuck I’m-going-to-talk-all-the-time-Grassley and Graham, who couldn't really have been a friend to Sen. John McCain, although Cain and Abel were brothers.

What we watched last week — and what I had to turn away from and watch later because you could only take so much at once — was a display that showed why Donald Trump got elected president.

What we watched last week — Christine Ford telling her story almost apologetically to a bunch of men who literally were so dismissive that it almost required the throwing of shoes — was proof that America is gone.

What we watched was a game of thrones with no winners because it showed exactly why so many of us hate the current system of government.

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There were no winners, save one: a growing movement of women declaring we have had enough. That the Congress didn't want to investigate Ford's recollection of an attempted rape doesn't change the fact that a courageous woman who didn't have to, came forward, stood up and was heard.

And even though more than half the judiciary committee, such as it was, was not listening, much of America was.

And it became clear that this movement, this thing that started with complaints about a Hollywood producer and now has produced an avalanche of hidden tales of hidden attacks, is not going away.

Just like the woman who cornered Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator and refused to go away, who made him see her — enough to call for an FBI investigation.

Just like Maryland authorities who may investigate what happened to Ford because there is no statute of limitations on attempted rape there.

While Donald Trump is quietly pushing Kavanaugh to fight for a seat he doesn’t deserve, he better understand that even if confirmed, he could become the first associate justice with an asterisk. He could become the first charged with a felony.

He could become the first associate justice to go to jail.

Sometimes the decision isn’t the president’s or the Senate’s. Sometimes, the decision belongs to a husband and father who should know that what he may not remember is something that may have changed a woman's life forever.

People should stop yelling at the television and the senators whose fierce quest for a win obliterated any sense of common decency. They instead should remind Kavanaugh that this may not end with this hearing or this job.

Forget the four senators enjoying their moment in the sun as the possible swing votes in this confirmation.

Forget Trump, whose team may be trying to stack the quote for a pardon. Remember the Russia investigation?

Focus on Kavanaugh and what he could do to end this.

This isn't just about a hashtag. This isn't about a trend. This is about a movement that will not be derailed by pompous windbags putting politics before decency.

Brett Kavanaugh should be decent — and go home.

Contact Rochelle Riley at rriley99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @rochelleriley. Get her book “The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery where books are sold or at https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/burden.