By David French
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
We hear a lot about norms these days. We live in a time
when alleged pre-existing norms of decency, civility, and respect are being
cast aside for the sake of “winning.” The ends justify the means, and a
dignified loser is just that: a loser. There is a real sense that we’re losing
something irreplaceable, a shared respect that once allowed partisans to battle
over ideas while remaining bound together as citizens of the world’s greatest
constitutional republic.
John McCain’s funeral this weekend was supposed to have
reminded us of these national values, to have pricked our consciences. It was
an occasion for the Washington establishment to unite in the face of an angry,
temperamental president and say, “Enough! There is dignity in public service
and advocacy. There is a better way.”
Unfortunately, it appears that all too much of the talk
about norms and civility and decency is just another weapon of convenience, to
be dropped the moment it is perceived to pave the path of defeat. Just look at
the disgusting spectacle that was day one (and the opening of day two) of Brett
Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.
Before I continue, let me remind you that Kavanaugh is
the opposite of a norm-violating,
civility-straining, Trumpist jurist. He is the very definition of a
GOP-establishment lawyer. He would be a front-runner for a SCOTUS nomination in
any Republican administration. He is not only solidly within the mainstream of
originalist legal thought, he’s so respected across the aisle that Elena Kagan hired him to teach at
Harvard Law School.
In other words, throughout his career, Kavanaugh has
helped maintain norms rather than violating them. He’s the living embodiment of
the kind of person — and the kind of politics — that Democrats now claim they
miss in the age of Trump.
Yet yesterday, from the top down, from senators to
protesters to online trolls, the Democrats offered a preview of how they’d
react to any Republican nominee, and it was a shining example of how and why
conservatives don’t believe for one moment that Donald Trump is the sole source
of American dysfunction.
Consider first the utterly frivolous behavior of multiple
Democratic senators. Within seconds of the hearing’s start they interrupted
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley with demands that he
adjourn the hearing. The pretext was one of those eye-glazing Washington
debates over document production, in which senators who’d already vowed weeks
ago to vote against Kavanaugh claimed they couldn’t possibly evaluate him
properly based on the hundreds of thousands of pages they already had
(including more than a decade of judicial opinions). They instead absolutely needed every scrap of paper he ever
touched, so . . . what? They could cast a more emphatic no vote?
Make no mistake, this was purely a sop to the Democratic
base. You see, there’s this #StopKavanaugh hashtag out there, and it’s sparked
speaking tours and panel discussions and such, and if the senators just rolled
over and debated plain, old, boring legal doctrines, then they wouldn’t look
very good to the #Resistance, now would they? They had to do something dramatic, no matter how
ineffectual. So for two hours, petty interruptions were substituted for serious
debate.
The senators were outdone, of course, by the angry
activists in the room. One of the first ways you can discern whether to dismiss
a protester, pundit, or politician as a serious person is whether they pay any
attention at all to The Handmaid’s Tale
as some sort of allegory for our times. The president is a libertine
philanderer who pays off porn stars and playmates, but somehow we’re about two
steps from Gilead. Yet sure as the night follows day, the Handmaids showed up
to Kavanaugh’s hearing, and along with them the Mos Eisley cantina of shrieking
protesters.
Let’s be clear, had angry Tea Party protesters caused the
same scale of disruption at a Democratic hearing, news outlets would be shaking
their heads at the dangerous lack of respect for a dignified nominee. Instead,
all too many folks think this is what democracy looks like: serial attempts to
exercise an incoherent, screaming heckler’s veto.
But if you thought the sad display in the hearing room
was the day’s nadir, you’ve never heard of Twitter. Online, conspiracy theories
exploded, beginning with this one:
Kavanaugh’s former law clerk Zina
Bash is flashing a white power sign behind him during his Senate confirmation
hearing. They literally want to bring white supremacy to the Supreme Court.
What a national outrage and a disgrace to the rule of law.
pic.twitter.com/uQGOpNa6xg
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) September 4, 2018
For those wondering, Zina Bash is one of the more
respected and talented young conservative lawyers in Washington. As her husband
— John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas — explained on
Twitter, she’s Mexican on her mother’s side and Jewish on her father’s side.
Her paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors, and she was born in Mexico.
So, no, it’s not remotely credible to believe she was flashing a white-power
symbol.
Those facts didn’t deter the online left, though. The
claims kept spreading until they turned into an instant left-wing version of
the legendary Pizzagate conspiracy —unsupported by any meaningful facts yet
fervently believed by thousands.
Then there was Snubgate, the claim that Kavanaugh
deliberately refused to shake the hand of a father of a slain Parkland teen.
The man, Fred Guttenberg, approached Kavanaugh in the scrum during a break in
the hearing, he stuck out his hand, security approached, and Kavanaugh turned
away. That’s it. You can watch the whole thing here, broken down in slow motion
like the Zapruder film:
Fred Guttenberg, father of Parkland
victim, Jaime, tries to shakes hands with Brett Kavanaugh: "My daughter
was murdered at Parkland."
White House says an
"unidentified individual approached" Kavanaugh, but "before the
judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened."
pic.twitter.com/IerpDMOW0h
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 4,
2018
Almost instantly, this momentary encounter was
transformed into an intentional, crass snub of a grieving father by an evil,
uncaring judge. Guttenberg went on CNN and made an unsubstantiated claim that
Kavanaugh not only intentionally snubbed him, but personally asked that he be
removed:
Father of Slain Parkland Teen (Fred
Guttenberg) Says Not Only Did Kavanaugh Turn Away As Soon As He Mentioned His
Murdered Daughter. But Kavanaugh Himself Asked Security to Remove Guttenberg
and ID'd Him to Security By the Bracelets He Wears for His Daughter.
pic.twitter.com/7MD66IBLk3
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
September 5, 2018
A complete stranger walked up to the judge in a hearing
disrupted by multiple protesters, security moved in immediately, and Kavanaugh
was supposed to do . . . what, exactly? Push aside security to engage with the
man, despite not knowing who he is?
It’s hard to believe that I’m wasting my time talking
about any of this, but the claims against Kavanaugh and Bash raced around the
web. They were taken as proof of Kavanaugh’s depravity and Bash’s racism.
Millions of people viewed the videos. Tweets and retweets skyrocketed into the
hundreds of thousands.
And what did all this sound and fury mean? Not much for
Brett Kavanaugh, who started the day almost certain to be confirmed and ended
it — if anything — even more of a lock for confirmation. But for our body
politic, it was one more piece of evidence than the battle over civility long
ago reached the Iran–Iraq phase — a grim war of attrition between two sides
that commit atrocities for sport. The “norms” of American political life aren’t
in fact the respect and civility extolled at John McCain’s funeral.
Increasingly, they are the frivolity, ridiculousness, and gross behavior you
saw yesterday.
So, the next time you hear grave words about civility,
respond with a request: Show, don’t tell. When the chips are down, will you
practice what you preach? Yesterday’s performance provides a clear answer, and
it should worry all of us who genuinely care about health of American political
discourse.
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