The balance of power between the two parties is measured not just by votes but by rage. The liberal fury at Brett Kavanaugh is about him but not only him. It takes in, too, the institutions that bred him, the structure and manner of privilege, and the conviction that extraordinary acts of violence toward women reflect and depend on everyday refusals to hear what women have to say. The conservative anger at the attacks on Kavanaugh was not about Christine Blasey Ford at all but about the liberal success at politicizing American life, and about the conviction that a culture—patriarchal, élite, conservative—that was decent was now everywhere called corrupt, and in danger of being toppled. On Thursday morning, a woman alleged carefully that a Supreme Court nominee had tried to rape her, and answered questions about her account with factual precision and psychological detail. In the afternoon, the man whom she had accused insisted that the events of the day were all about him—about how he had been unfairly targeted, about the long Democratic quest for power. The careful female prosecutor, brought in by the Republicans to lend a veneer of expertise and process, was summarily dismissed midway through Kavanaugh’s questioning. Once she was gone, Kavanaugh yelled, and then Lindsey Graham yelled, and then even John Cornyn yelled; they were careful not to yell at any women and instead yelled at men, such as Patrick Leahy, who by looks might have been their fathers. What happened? people were asking, on Twitter and in real life. What was that? It was a day when each side began to see that the rage of the other was not feigned. That was clarity.