In the wake of a new sexual misconduct allegation against Brett Kavanaugh — an assault denied by its own alleged victim, apparently — Democrats on the 2020 campaign trail to the White House have backed impeaching the Supreme Court justice. Presidential hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris publicly called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment, and freshman congresswoman Ayanna Pressley will introduce a House resolution to open an impeachment inquiry.
Go ahead, Democrats. Shoot your shot. Give President Trump another term.
The single most galvanizing moment for every conservative since the beginning of the Obama presidency was last year’s confirmation catastrophe. For the first time in three years, Trump wasn’t the marquee figure of the Left’s ire. Instead, it was a man with a documented history of unimpeachable morality and merit, the very educated and humble negative of our narcissistic and nepotistic president.
For once, conservatives weren’t arguing that even if Trump screwed a porn star, he didn’t commit a campaign finance violation. Even if Trump sucks up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he didn’t literally conspire to collude with him during the election. Even if his rhetoric is unacceptably racist, sovereign nations require enforced borders. No, instead, the Kavanaugh fight was a uniting one for everyone. Hell, even Joe Scarborough can’t help but defend the guy. Why is that?
It’s because the Kavanaugh story was easy to take sides on, since the sides were finally so clear. It was black and white, due process and the presumption of innocence versus an evidence-free witch hunt. Plenty of conservatives, myself included, weren’t terribly enthused about the nomination of Kavanaugh over, say, Amul Thapar or Amy Coney Barrett. But to watch a good man risk losing his entire career and good name under the national spotlight without a shred of corroborating evidence or a single credible witness sent a shock through the spines of conservatives across the country. The Left wouldn’t just seek to destroy someone as nasty as Trump. They’d do it to someone as mild as Kavanaugh. And if you fly too close to the sun, they’ll do it to you as well.
We won, and the boost of confirming Kavanaugh likely saved the midterm elections from being a far worse bloodbath. But with the Kavanaugh drama receding into the uncommon civility of the Supreme Court and with Trump predictably divisive, the Right splintered once more.
Some of us held our noses as the Mueller report revealed that our president may be guilty of pathologically lying but not literal crimes of conspiracy. But Kavanaugh doesn’t deserve the sort of half-hearted, piecemeal defense that Trump gets; he deserved an impassioned defense which, if relitigated in earnest, will drive Republicans to the polls.
The adults in the room know this. It’s why when asked by Politico about whether their party should seriously entertain impeaching Kavanuagh, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin told the press to “get real.” Even the Senate Judiciary Committee member who grilled the then-nominee on the stand knows that they investigated the allegations, and the ones that didn’t remain unproven completely fell apart.
This coming election can be about an incumbent who flirts with nuclear war and the world’s worst dictators. It can be about an incumbent who willingly launched a fruitless trade war, with average Americans footing the bill. It can be about an adulterous incumbent with little regard for norms and even less regard for the truth, sowing civil unrest through his tireless tweeting and divisive meltdowns.
Or 2020 can be about whether we want to empower the extremist liars we watched last summer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who reject the Constitution’s promise of the presumption of innocence, and will do anything to destroy those who stand in the way of their fringe ideas.
It’s your move, Democrats.
