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A Brief Note to Susan Collins RE: Brett Kavanaugh

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | October 3, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | October 3, 2018 |


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Dear Susan Collins —

Good morning. Maine resident here! How is your day going? Good? Good.

So, listen: There are so many reasons that you should not vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice. So many. I mean, he will overturn Roe v. Wade, for one, and you purport to support a woman’s right to abortion. There’s also the fact that he clearly lied repeatedly and misrepresented himself under oath, and not just about his drinking. Or the fact that he got into Yale all on his own (he was a legacy student). Or about his work with the Bush administration. Or boofing or the devil’s triangle. Or the many lies he told about his relationship with Deborah Ramirez. Or the fact that everything we continue to read that the media has surfaced — because the FBI is clearly too constrained by your Republican colleagues to do so — supports the accounts of Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. Or what about his temperament? You want a short-fused Supreme Court justice with a bone to pick with liberals, or women, as the deciding vote on so many issues?

There are just so many reasons not to vote for him, but chief among them is this, Senator Collins: If you vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, you are saying to the entire country that this — THIS — is OK. That dismissing and mocking and belittling the accounts of not one, not two, but three women is OK. That the President of the United States can stand up in front of a crowd of thousands and shit all over someone for telling their story. You are saying that these tactics are cool with you. You are tacitly approving them.

Because a vote for Brett Kavanaugh is not just a vote for a drunken douchebag with a clear history of sexual assault. A vote for Brett Kavanaugh is a message to the American people that this is fine. That it’s politics as usual. That it’s OK to shit all over women because white dudes are the real victims. You will give permission to Donald Trump to double down on his message. You will embolden him.

You did not endorse Trump before the general election in 2016. You refused to vote for him. You wrote:

With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize. But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing — either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level — that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president.

My conclusion about Mr. Trump’s unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.

If you vote for Kavanaugh, you’re endorsing the very tactics that you rejected in 2016. This is more than just Brett Kavanaugh, Senator Collins. This is about the message that we, as a country, are sending to people who are too terrified to speak up because of men like Donald Trump. You’re not just voting for a Supreme Court justice. You are telling millions of people that they and their stories do not matter.



Header Image Source: Getty