By just a few votes, cast by a handful of particularly spineless Senators, the Republicans were able to ram the Kavanaugh nomination through the Senate on a collision course with the U.S. Supreme Court. I was going to write something about the Supreme Court being the last pillar standing in our democracy, but that really isn't or has been true. Whatever institutional integrity the place might have still had was jettisoned long ago with the infamous Bush v. Gore ruling. The best democracy (Republican) money can buy, yessiree Bob (Corker)!
It's with some reluctance that this week's rant 'n' rave is reserved for Susan Collins. While I don't want to single her out, I'm gonna single her out. For the men who fell in line, I'm not at all surprised - gender equality and gender equity are probably #4,391 on the list they actually give a hoot about. They'll simply bumble along with the rest of their white, entitled lives in utter, blissful ignorance of how much harm they just caused the nation with their scruple-less act of misogynistic white supremacy.
Back to Susie Q. As has been written much more eloquently, Senator Collins sold out her gender and her soul. For what exactly I'm not sure. Is she such a loyal patriarchy-loving fool that she simply fell in after a good solid mansplaining from the triple-chinned blunder, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell? Was she offered a carrot - maybe a cabinet position, a committee chair or some campaign financial assistance to counter the likely avalanche of contributions her 2020 opponent will receive? Was she threatened with a stick - the denial of all of the above?
I guess I'm asking for a little help here. One thing is for sure. Women, people of color, recently arrived immigrants - legal and undocumented, non-evangelical Christians, people living with disabilities, and yes, you too - "blue collar" working class folks - we're all in for world of pain and suffering. Unless, of course, we stop focusing on what separates us and instead on what will bring us together.
Let's all try to have some patience with each other and realize that all of us are traumatized by living in this savage, winner-take-all society, the "leaders" of which are always multiple steps ahead in their centuries' old strategy of divide and rule. Whatever Alex de Tocqueville might have thought he saw here almost 200 years ago is now only hanging on for dear life. Time for all of us to start doing some serious non-rapey CPR on our social fabric so that we can restore bonds of mutual tolerance, acceptance, trust and, dare I say it, love. Our nation's survival depends on it. And yeah, Donald "Pop a Couple of Tic Tacs" Trump is hereby banned from this collective exercise, unless Susan Collins is still looking for her big fat wet sloppy "thank you" kiss.
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