This is going to be a short one, I just want to get something off my chest that been gnawing at me since Dr. Ford’s outing.
We’ve all been in this scorched earth partisan political mindset for so long that we can tend to forget what normal is. What real life is like for real people across this earth. Every once in awhile someone who lives outside of this mindset appears in our lives and it has the effect of jolting us back into sensibility. I think what specifically did it for me was when her attorney clarified, “this is not a game.”
That’s exactly what happened this week when Dr. Ford rightly refused to allow the GOP to suck her into their vortex. We know all the reasons why:
- This literally JUST happened to her and is probably EXACTLY what she was afraid of happening when she sent that anonymous letter to her representative last summer. It’s a great deal for most people to wrap their heads around and, understandably, she’s still processing everything.
- ON TOP of all that, she’s having to do so while concurrently fielding death threats and other aggressive tactics from right wing criminals.
- She has zero interest in being made a pawn by partisan hacks who are supposed to be protecting her.
And that brings me to my main point:
One thing I keep hearing this week from Republican politicians and pundits is,
“Dr. Ford is in no position to negotiate.”
The fact that these words would come out of anyone’s mouth only demonstrates how cynically they are viewing this whole thing, so on the off chance that anyone reading this ever said those words, let me make something clear to you.
Dr. Ford is most certainly NOT negotiating, you imbecile. Negotiating implies you have something to gain or lose. She already lost her innocence when she was 15 years old. She can’t negotiate that back.
What she is doing is simply TRYING TO TELL YOU about something that happened to her 35 years ago concerning a man you’re supposed to be considering for SCOTUS.
Is that starting to sink in?
Your JOB, Your RESPONSIBILITY... IS TO US.
You’re supposed to PROTECT US.
Here we have a person who has some critical information for you about how you can do your job... and you think she’s NEGOTIATING?!? She’s trying to help you DO YOUR JOB. YOU’RE the only one negotiating. You’re negotiating against yourself and all Americans when you position this as some sort of dispute between two people. Are you daft?! Just because she refuses to allow you to re-victimize her doesn’t mean she’s negotiating, it means she sees right through your little charade! This is one of your most solemn duties, not some parlor game.
And stop trying to sell us this crap about an investigation being pointless. No one’s buying it. It’s taken all of a couple of days for evidence to emerge, proving that a proper investigation is indeed necessary and warranted as more and more reports come out about friends and acquaintances who can possibly corroborate her story. So please, spare us this nonsense about there not being anything to investigate. You should be embarrassed that a teacher from California understands how to do your job better than you do.
If that all isn’t quite computing just yet, let me put this another way: If you weren’t such a coward you’d admit that your only true motivation here is to confirm Kavanaugh so that he can continue the right wing assault on American liberty.
We all know it.
We all see it.
We’re not blind.
We’re not as stupid as you think we are.
And we’re about to show you.
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Edit: As tempting as it is and as satisfying as it would be to watch her testify, I hope she doesn’t. I don’t think she should submit to the GOP’s ridiculous and unreasonable demands.
Fuck that and Fuck them.
They clearly have zero interest in the truth. They’re trying to set her up to be re-victimized. It’s sabotage.
If she were asking my advice I would tell her: DO NOT let them do that. DO NOT give them the satisfaction. The end result will be the same anyway: it won’t change their vote. The only difference is she will have had to endure hours of cross-examination from a gang of Trump cronies, exposed for the world’s entertainment.
What I would recommend instead would be for her to set up meetings specifically with Flake, Collins and Murkowski.
FULL STOP. Let’s see what that news does to the GOP Republicans when they catch wind of it.