Judge Robert Bork used to tell a prescient and darkly humorous story about watching Clarence Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearings — etched in pre-hashtag history as the “Thomas–Hill hearings,” in homage to Anita Hill’s role as the Left’s heroic accuser.

As he viewed Thomas’ “high-tech lynching” in horror, Bork recalled, a friend of his, the iconic Irving Kristol, approached and asked him what was happening. “The end of civilization,” the judge sadly quipped.

“Of course it is,” Kristol deadpanned. “But it’ll take a long time. Meanwhile, it’s still possible to live well.”

It was a poignant story coming from Bork. A scholar of great breadth, the late judge was a man from another time: a patriot who’d enlisted in the Marines at 17 during World War II and been called back to duty when the Korean War broke out, even as he embarked on a legendary life in the law. In 1987, four years before the Thomas–Hill hearings, he himself was mugged by Senate Democrats. This libelous character assassination, derailing Bork’s nomination by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, had been led by Ted Kennedy.

Back in 1969, Sen. Kennedy had recklessly caused the death of a young woman by driving her off a rickety bridge on Chappaquiddick Island as they sped away from a booze-soaked bacchanal. Kennedy managed to save himself by swimming to safety. He then abandoned the scene for hours, failing to alert police and rescue workers while Mary Jo Kopechne, submerged in the car, eventually drowned.

Kopechne did not live to see “Me Too.” That “movement” was not forged until long after leftists had raised Kennedy to “Lion of the Senate” status. Indeed, it was not forged until 20 years after Democrats, prominently including women’s-rights advocates, closed ranks around President Bill Clinton.

According to the victim’s credible accusation, Clinton had raped Juanita Broaddrick in 1978. At the time, he was the 32-year-old attorney general of Arkansas. That assault came to light during the investigation of Clinton’s obstruction of a sexual-harassment suit filed by Paula Jones. She alleged that, while governor of Arkansas, Clinton had exposed himself to her, demanding oral sex. She declined and fled the room.

In the face of Jones’ entirely credible allegation, a top Clinton White House aide set the narrative: “Drag a hundred dollars through a trailer park and there’s no telling what you’ll find.” Clinton eventually paid $850,000 to settle the matter out of court.

The president was later held in contempt of court for providing perjurious testimony. That testimony was about Monica Lewinsky. It was also through Jones’ case that we discovered that Clinton, while the 50-year-old president of the United States, had arranged Oval Office sexual liaisons with the then-22-year-old White House intern.

These were just some of the many sexcapades in which Clinton leveraged his physical and political muscle against vulnerable women. His political partner and wife, Hillary, took charge of the jihads against her husband’s bevy of potential accusers. Think of them as a Me Too precursor, strangled in the cradle lest Democrats be separated from power.

And how did Democrats respond to this outrageous affront against all that Me Too stands for? Why, by nominating Mrs. Clinton for president and championing her as (what else?) a symbol for women everywhere who challenge our sexist, predatory, Good Old Boy society.

Some more not-so-fun facts. Not so long after Thomas’ nomination was very nearly defeated, President Bill Clinton got to nominate two Supreme Court justices. How did Republicans react? Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer were confirmed by the lopsided margins of 96–3 and 87–9, respectively.

See how this works?

Ginsburg and Breyer were well qualified. But, so had been Bork and Thomas. Because they were Democrats, however, Ginsburg and Breyer sailed through. Now, with the nomination of Brett Kavan­augh, we seem to have reached Bork’s metaphorical end of civilization: when Republicans are disqualified based on unprosecuted, unprovable and largely unremembered misconduct that allegedly occurred when they were in high school.

Kavanaugh’s nomination is imperiled because of a highly dubious, unverifiable allegation of bumbling, drunken sexual aggression as a high-school student: an assault the purported victim never told anyone about (not the police, not a friend, not her parents) until therapy sessions 30 years after the “fact.”

If the Democrats had raised the allegation in a timely manner, its weakness would have been palpable, it would have been used for what little it’s worth during Kavanaugh’s testimony, it would be put to rest as unverifiable, and we’d be on to a confirmation vote.

Republicans should not be rewarding this mendacious gambit by giving the perpetrators the start of what they calculate will be the delay they need. But alas, come Monday, the circus is scheduled to be in town: Anita Hill 2.0.

Or, as Bob Bork would say, “the end of civilization.”

President Trump says a lot of things that are not true and says a lot of other things that are foolish and unsavory. But his supporters are drawn to him, in large part, because he is willing to get into the muck with Democrats, fight them on their own demagogic terms — especially on things he cares about, like his nominees. They are tired of Republicans’ being caught flat-footed, continually underestimating how low Democrats are willing to go, how much they are willing to destroy reputations, institutions and traditions in order to win.

We’re beyond the time when it’s still possible to live well. If Democrats get away with what they are trying to do to Kavanaugh, the only decent people in politics will be decent progressives; people who reflect the broader range of opinion and civility in the country will not participate in or pay much mind to our politics because it is too savage.

We can’t continually have judicial nominees — and everyone else — treated under different sets of rules depending on whether they’re Democrats or Republicans.

©2018 National Review Inc. Reprinted with permission.