Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the U.S. Supreme Court at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 6, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Why People of Good Conscience Should Make Sure Kavanaugh Situation Never Happens Again

Commentary

This country has had to endure the spectacle of a judge—who’s already been through six FBI background checks and numerous confirmation hearings since 1993—needing to go on TV to deny accusations that he raped or attempted to rape women back in his high school and college days.

He has also had to specifically deny that he ran a group of men in college that gang-raped several women.

We were all treated to this travesty because Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and their media allies waited until Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing was over to begin dropping multiple sexual-assault allegations that they had been deliberately hiding for at least six weeks.

The entire country has been watching aghast as one of its two chief political parties continues to demonstrate just how unhinged its top leadership has become. Not only must the spectacle of what this Democratic leadership has put Kavanaugh and his family through never be forgotten, but it must also never be repeated.

It’s clear at this point what the Democratic strategy is: Go so low, become so vile in relentless attacks on the character of any nominee that in the future, that potential picks such as Amy Coney Barrett will rush to tell Trump, “Please remove my name from your list of Supreme Court candidates. I simply cannot subject myself or my family to this kind of sick trauma.”

If anybody thought the Clarence Thomas hearings of 1991 were as bad as it could get, the past three weeks have shown just how much worse American political discourse can become. With Thomas’s nomination, the Democrats waited until the last minute, after every other avenue had failed to stop Thomas’s march to the Supreme Court, to trot out Anita Hill to make claims of sexual harassment. The transparent gambit failed, and the Senate—which the Democrats controlled at the time—confirmed Thomas to the court.

Twenty-seven years later, Democrats have reached the point they’ll wait until literally the 11th hour to begin dropping unsubstantiated allegations that the nominee is a sexual predator. This is where the Democratic Party is at in 2018. And this can’t be allowed to continue.

If top Democrats are allowed to just walk blithely away from what happened here, you can be sure they will try it again. As I said in a recent column, until a high price is paid for engaging in this vile behavior, Democrats will continue doing transparently fake stunts like this.

Due process and the presumption of innocence are foundational principles of our legal system in the United States. While there are countries where it’s up to the accused person to prove innocence, but America has never been one of those countries. For Democratic Party leadership to begin very publicly questioning whether people such as Kavanaugh should have a presumption of innocence or any right to due process is an incredible benchmark of just how far that political party has descended into fascism.

Since Americans prefer actual democracy and republicanism to actual fascistic practice, this present Democratic Party can never be allowed to resume political power in this country.

In recent days, top Democratic leaders have blatantly claimed in live televised interviews that Kavanaugh bears the burden of proof, not his accuser, essentially arguing he has no presumption of innocence and isn’t entitled to any due process. Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) say that, despite the fact that all four named witnesses provided by Kavanaugh’s accuser have publicly gone on the record to deny witnessing any sexual assault, Kavanaugh bears the burden of proving his innocence.

Hirono even went on during her interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper to bluntly state that Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy strips him of any presumption of innocence.

If Democrats think they are going to get very far with this new strategy of pretending that conservatives and Republicans don’t have the same due-process rights and the presumption of innocence that Democrats enjoy, a profound and important lesson is about to be taught to them.

Whatever official remedies are instituted in the Senate to ensure that this revolting spectacle is never repeated, there needs to be an accounting for a political party that has embraced these kinds of tactics. And that accounting can only come from people within the Democratic Party.

How can people of good conscience watch this farce unfold and remain passive in the face of what is being done to a good man and his family? I have no doubt many people who have voted Democrat in the past are, right now, asking themselves, “How can I continue to be part of a political party that engages in this kind of behavior?”

Over the past two years, many former Democrats reached their limit and walked away. There is even a major rally scheduled in Washington for Oct. 26 to 28, at which people intend to share their #WalkAway stories.

How many people will be there, I wonder, who have walked away at last, after watching the Democrat-led fiasco that the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings have become?

Brian Cates is a political pundit and writer based in South Texas and the author of “Nobody Asked For My Opinion … But Here It Is Anyway!” He can be reached on Twitter at @drawandstrike

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.