Wednesday, October 3, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Bunkhouse
Chronicle
Craig Rullman
Columnist
You can’t get there
from here
I’ve been wondering
what there is to say about the
saga of Judge Kavanaugh,
and the allegations made by
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
There really is no upside to
joining the discussion in the
present environment, largely
because we seem to have
regressed to the tactics of
politically driven denuncia-
tion in place of evidence and
fact.
But I’m going to do it
anyway. Because accusa-
tions of this sort must be
accompanied by evidence.
And in this case, there isn’t
any reliable evidence. Only
a 36-year-old memory-based
claim with more holes in it
than a country road sign.
Nevertheless, Kavanaugh
has been pilloried, and the
usual cast of the outraged
has once again been trig-
gered — shrieking in the
Senate office buildings,
rending their garments in the
street, and harassing people
in restaurants.
Again.
It’s remarkable that so
many people who decry
Trump as a fascist have so
quickly and willingly tapped
into their own fascist tenden-
cies to declare a verdict in a
case without any corroborat-
ing evidence.
While so many are quick
to celebrate Ford as a “sur-
vivor,” that whole notion is
predicated on the idea that
something actually hap-
pened. And maybe it did. But
Ford’s claims, as it stands
right now, simply can’t be
proven, and since they can’t
be proven, our legal and
moral obligation is clear —
which is to act on the pre-
sumption of innocence.
And yet there are millions
of Americans who, without
any hesitation whatsoever,
have taken Ford’s tale as
gospel. In many cases they
believe it, with astonishing
pride, simply because she is
a woman.
Which is extremely
dangerous for all of us.
It’s dangerous because
believing someone simply
because they are a woman,
or because they are white,
or a man, or a white man,
or because they are black,
or because they are gay, or
straight, or because they
are Hispanic, or Chinese,
or Inuit, or for any reason
accidental to their birth, is
precisely the direction we
should NOT be travelling on
the path to justice.
Isn’t that the whole point
of Colin Kaepernick’s pro-
test? Aren’t we supposed
to be looking deeper than
skin color and plumbing
and politics in the search
for truth? Aren’t we sup-
posed to presume inno-
cence until a preponderance
of evidence persuades us
otherwise?
What rational adults are
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meant to believe in, in both
the court of opinion and the
court of justice, is credible
evidence legally obtained,
and no one has yet come
forward with any evidence
whatsoever to substantiate
Ford’s claims — including
the people she alleges were
present. To believe an accu-
sation without evidence,
and to double-down on that
incredibly irresponsible
behavior by destroying a
man’s reputation and career,
in the utter absence of due
process, is unconscionable,
cynical in the extreme, and
beneath the dignity of our
judicial system.
And yet here we are.
Kavanaugh’s right to a
presumption of innocence
was destroyed the minute
Senator Diane Feinstein
decided to use Ford’s letter,
and Ford herself, as a politi-
cal tool. Feinstein didn’t
have to do it that way, but
she did, and the worst part of
all is that, should Kavanaugh
go on to be confirmed, Dr.
Ford herself will be left by
the side of the road as a cau-
tionary tale presented as evi-
dence to legitimate victims
of crime that no one will
believe them.
Which has never been
true, because tens of thou-
sands of victims get believed
every day in America, which
is one reason the cops are
so busy and our prisons are
overflowing.
It doesn’t matter what
side of the aisle you are
on, whether you are run-
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hat with Lee Greenwood
playing on an endless loop
in your head, or whether
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you are wearing out a Che
T-shirt throwing rocks and
bottles at the cops, the sort
of grandstanding show-trial
atmosphere enjoined by
Senators like Corey Booker
(an admitted groper) and
Senator Blumenthal (lied
about his Vietnam service)
should bother you. Because
that low standard of due
process — demonstrated by
people whose own credibil-
ity hovers at zero — doesn’t
lead to tyranny, it actually IS
tyranny.
And before you storm off
in a pique to denounce this
column, try to keep in mind,
unemotionally, that no one
is suggesting that sexual
assault is OK, or that cad-
dish behavior is acceptable.
Far from it. It isn’t accept-
able from anybody, ever.
And given that this colum-
nist has investigated dozens
of sex crimes, and arrested
more than one actual serial
rapist, the bonafides here are
solid.
But if you are going to
accuse someone of a crime,
and you are willing to
21
destroy their life in that pro-
cess, bear in mind that every
single person in America is
entitled to the presumption
of innocence.
Because if you get it
wrong, you can’t square
it up later. The damage is
done, and it’s permanent.
Which isn’t good enough.
Far too many people in con-
temporary America, driven
wild by intense and emo-
tional political hatreds, are
choosing the convenience
of political denunciation and
meme-think narratives over
actual evidence and the due
process guaranteed each of
us by law.
And that really isn’t
America. It’s North Korea.
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