Gone With the Norms

Gone With the Wind had to be one of the most horribly racist films ever made, never mind held up as a "classic" of American film making. It glorified the all aspects of the antebellum South and the Confederacy, including the vicious, dehumanizing and brutal violence embodied by slavery.

Kind of like Brett Kavanaugh and the Republican-controlled Senate's judiciary committee's consideration of his nomination.

Norms be damned, frankly, because there was never any intent by the GOP to have a serious examination of Kavanaugh's views, writing or record. They were all too busy licking their chops for the day when they could usher in another 30 years of control of the Supreme Court by a solid block of right-wing white supremacists. Yes, that includes Clarence Thomas, too, who reminds me of Clayton Bigsby, the black Klansman on the Chappelle Show. I guess that justice really is blind.

Anyway, I won't recap the clown show that passed for a proper vetting of Kavanaugh. All he had to do was emulate his patron, Donald Trump, and lie, lie, lie and lie some more. Nobody, certainly nobody with any kind of real political power, was going to do anything about it. I read somewhere that the Republicans felt justified in carrying out this travesty because they considered it revenge for the way the Democrats treated (and defeated the nomination of ) Robert Bork over 30 years ago. Really? WTF? Bork was one of Nixon's willing executioners, sticking the sword right in the back of Lady Justice to help his overlord try to escape accountability for the Watergate break-in. If anyone was patently unqualified to be appointed to the Supreme Court it was him. Now, Kavanaugh is very ably filling the same mold, albeit a bit more photogenically, trading Bork's evil professor look for that of a prep school rowing team captain.

But, at this point, intellectual dishonesty is probably the least of the Republican faults, considering what's on tap once Kavanaugh is confirmed, and let there be no doubt, he will be confirmed. Get ready for further dismantling of women's rights - both in general and reproductive rights in particular; destruction of voting rights - to safeguard the rule by a white minority for the foreseeable future; removal of environmental protections and worker safeguards - to allow unfettered pollution and exploitation of workers; and the elimination of structures to maintain church-state separation - to enshrine the Christian doctrine of deport thy neighbor.

Makes me want to curl up and escape by watching old movies. And why fool around with Gone with the Wind when you can cut right to the chase. Triumph of the Will, anyone?