Writing for The Nation, Nan Aron says the bruising Senate confirmation process and quick, private swearing-in of Brett Kavanaugh has led to “a moment of reflection and some exhaustion; it’s also the moment when traditionally, progressives have packed up their tents and gone home.” But even in an era of acute political transformation and “relentless Trumpism,” she writes, “the battle over Brett Kavanaugh has plumbed a deep well of anger and pain that was waiting to come to the surface.” The bitterly polarized Senate narrowly confirmed Brett Kavanaugh on Saturday to join the Supreme Court. The near party-line vote was 50-48.
She continues, “I now believe that for a new generation of voters—especially women—the Senate’s catastrophic handling of this nomination and its contempt for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s act of national witness is a defining moment, when business as usual will no longer do. For 40 years, the right wing has sent its voters to the polls with the federal courts as a priority. It also built a machine for manufacturing and marketing the kind of nominee exemplified by Brett Kavanaugh: conventionally credentialed, politically connected, and partisan to the core. Progressives will never have an appetite for cookie-cutter nominees or the conformity-imposing systems that build them. But we have the power as voters to make the courts an issue and a matter of real accountability and electability for senators, this year, in 2020 and beyond…We have arrived at this clarity through a painful process, but we have arrived, and with a midterm election right around the corner. And that’s just the beginning.”