I'VE SEEN FIRE AND I'VE SEEN RAIN

Here’s what Abraham Lincoln said about the Republican Party’s insistence on putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court come hell or high water: “Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.” 

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham piled on: “I have argued to you that when you found that a judge was a perjurer, you couldn’t in good conscience send him back in a courtroom because everybody that came in that courtroom thereafter would have a real serious doubt.”

Those are actual quotes, but not about Brett Kavanaugh.  Lincoln was talking about Southern secessionists in 1860.  But since the literal and spiritual descendants of those old Confederates now control the former “Party of Lincoln,” the comparison still seems apt. 

Lindsey Graham made his remarks back in 1999, while advocating for the impeachment of Bill Clinton.  Back then, he argued that the punishment for lying about consensual sex should have been removal from office.  Nineteen years later, he’s arguing that the punishment for lying about non-consensual sexual assault should be a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

I’ve been writing regularly about politics for over two years, and one of my consistent themes has been that Republicans are hypocrites.  I’m now beginning to wonder if I’ve given them too much credit. 

The 17th century French philosopher Francois De La Rochefoucauld wrote that “hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.”  But in the Age of Trump, Republican leadership no longer tries very hard to pay homage to virtue.  Maybe people like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham are exactly what they appear to be – power-hungry, money-grubbing bureaucrats who no different than their counterparts in Russia and various other third world countries around the globe.  Maybe Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and the rest of the GOP’s evangelical cheering section are exactly what they appear to be – hustlers who’ve figured out that mixing religion with Republican politics pays better than religion all by itself.

Republicans are drawn to Brett Kavanaugh because they recognize a kindred spirit.  There are plenty of respectable conservative jurists who would sail through the confirmation process.  But it’s increasingly clear that Republicans don’t want another respectable conservative jurist on the Supreme Court.  They want someone like them.  They want a partisan hack. 

Republicans want an ally on the Supreme Court who can cut through the legalistic bullshit about justice and help them get away with shady stuff.  Brett Kavanaugh has spent his whole life getting away with shady stuff.  He’s a perfect embodiment of 21st century Republicanism.

If there are any actual hypocrites left in the Republican Party, they’re ineffectual politicians like Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski, who pretend to be “concerned” before they cave in and support whatever Donald Trump and the GOP leadership are promoting. 

And yes, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that there are Democrats who aren’t much better.  So why bother to get worked up about it?  Why bother to choose between bad and worse?  Science fiction writer Alexandra Erin explains.

“Here's why you should vote for your Democratic Senator to be re-elected, even if they suck, even if they've coddled Trump, even if they don't share your principles or seem to have any of their own: You aren't voting for Senators. You're voting for control of the agenda by proxy.”

“Our republic is on fire right now, and we need Democrats in office to fight it. Not because they are firefighters. We are! We're the firefighters. They're the water. Throw the water at the fire. It'll leave behind a big toxic mess and a lot of structural damage. But no more fire.”

Mid-terms matter.  The next one matters more than any in my lifetime.