Kavanaugh’s hearings are a farce — who are the heroes?
Voting no is not enough, November is too late, and the movement in the streets is what’s needed
Why, during the week that Kavanaugh was being questioned at hearings in Washington DC did I chose to join in protesting Dick Durbin, the Democratic Senator from Illinois?
Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court would be a disaster for decades. I say that as someone who has fought for abortion rights and marched against war through too many presidencies — but recognizing how “not normal” this political battle is. After the Electoral College installed Donald Trump and Mike Pence in December 2016, I became part of the Refuse Fascism movement, the only one that identified this as a fascist regime back then, when most people (not all) thought that was a gross exaggeration. Now 20 months later we have seen children kidnapped from their parents and put in “baby jails” at the border, a Muslim ban upheld by the Supreme Court, and claims of “freedom of religion” used to strip away rights so recently won by women and LGBTQ people. Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court will turn it into a rubber stamp for the entire, deadly Trump agenda.
Kavanaugh’s long record in politics and on the bench confirms that he will uphold everything I and millions of others have opposed for these last 20 months — for the next 40 years. That’s why he was nominated! The fact that Republicans are salivating over the prospect is not a surprise, since they have become the Party of Trump. But what are the Democrats doing? What is “our” Senator Dick Durbin, the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate, doing?
Durbin has not even clearly, publicly stated that he will vote against confirmation. Indivisible, the progressive advocacy group, still lists him as “Leaning Oppose” as the hearings start. Even if he does vote “no,” that is just going through the motions, completely insufficient and passively accepting a nominee who should not even be given a hearing for oh so many reasons. He and Chuck Schumer may have decided to focus on the missing documents from Kavanaugh’s time as staff secretary for Bush as a more “realistic” approach than walking out of this charade, but that won’t persuade members of the Party of Trump to vote against Kavanaugh, much less delay these hearings, and everyone knows it.
Kavanaugh was nominated by an unindicted co-conspirator who has no right to put anyone on any bench, let alone the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh has held that the executive cannot be indicted, tried or even deposed while in office, putting him above the law during his term. And yet if confirmed, Kavanaugh will undoubtedly hear one or more cases directly or indirectly dealing with Trump. Now the White House refuses to release 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh’s records to the Judiciary Committee charged with confirming or rejecting his nomination, citing executive privilege.
But overshadowing all of that is the fact that no election, no chief executive can legitimately deny the fundamental rights of women, immigrants, and others in this day and age. If this will not move Democrats to refuse to normalize this broken process, to refuse to participate in it, to walk out, no one should call them ‘the resistance.’ They become complicit, much like Kavanaugh was as he shuffled papers for Bush’s legal team while they issued justifications for torture and other crimes. Is anyone surprised that Kavanaugh came out and said he considers birth control the same as abortion (and will undoubtably move to revoke our rights to both as soon as he has a chance)? We all know what’s at stake.
It’s past time for the rest of us to stop relying on traditional political channels to end this nightmare, whether electing Democrats or waiting for Mueller. The missing key to stopping Kavanaugh’s confirmation and stopping Trump is people taking to the streets in sustained protest. I applaud those disrupting these sham confirmation hearings and those participating in demonstrations and non-violent civil disobedience in Washington DC. Much more is needed. Instead of calling on people to join the protests, or organize more, Dick Durbin thanked the police who have been dragging protesters out of these sham hearings all week (he gave a nod to the protesters’ right to free speech, so I’m sure I’ll get some angry emails or Facebook posts telling me I should be more grateful to him). Today, former President Obama made headlines by criticizing Trump by name and urging voter turnout in November. What can happen between now and November? A tremendous amount. For starters, Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, which is being railroaded through this month. It will lock into place a fascist majority for decades to come (and shape the direction of society far more than any one election could ever do). Saying Nazis are bad one year after Charlottesville isn’t brave — and neither is ignoring this fascist takeover of the courts.

Some of the protesters in DC wore shirts reading “Be a Hero” — a message directed towards the senators and the powers that be. The irony is that these people (most, but not all, women) are the real heroes, putting themselves on the line to speak the truths that needed to be heard. I shudder to think what would have happened this week without these brave protesters. We should hear their message as directed at us — the people who don’t want to live in a fascist society that indefinitely detains immigrant children while treating women like walking incubators. We must be the heroes that stop all of this.
Here in Chicago, I urge everyone who shares my alarm at this nomination to demand more than a perfunctory “no” vote from Senator Durbin and to realize our power through principled non-violent protest, to stop Kavanaugh and the Trump/Pence regime and fight for an actually just society.
