BACKLASH!

Every time I think we're making progress in this country, we step back into the abyss.

We abolish slavery and invent Jim Crow.

We advance civil rights in the 60s only to create a generation of resentful whites, willing to take those rights back by restricting voting rights and resegregating schools.

We elect Obama only to lead to Charlottesville.

The LGBTQ community gain rights only to see them yanked away.

Women gain reproductive rights only to find out that corporate rights and religious rights trump them.

The assault weapons ban expires, and thousands die, and we're not supposed to care.

The #MeToo movement makes you think that women are finally able to speak out about the sexism and outright assault they have suffered.  And they are wrong.

You would think that we would have made some progress since Anita Hill's testimony.  But we have not.  We have gone backwards.

The meme above is typical from right-wing friends.  It ridicules and diminishes the multiple claims made against Brent Kavanaugh.    I saw the hearings.  She was the most believable, credible witness I had ever heard.  Why would she put herself through that, entering directly into the buzzsaw of ridiculing memes like the one above?  Why put Kavanaugh's best friend IN THE ROOM?  She was exact in the crucial things!  She was fuzzy in the things that she could have EASILY made up if she was faking, but she was fastidious in saying what she knew. 

I had an incident happen to me once.  Do I know the exact time and place?  No.  Do I remember what was done to me and who did it?  Of course, I do!

Kavanaugh's performance was despicable, and whether the assault happened or not, fully disqualifying to be a Supreme Court Judge.  He lied about things, over and over, large and small.  He sneered.  He cried.  He shouted.  He was partisan, showing there was no chance of him being fair on the court.

He represents everything that is wrong with this country, that self-centered white rich boy privilege that cries out that only his hurt, only his world matters.  He represents the horrible idea that what a privileged young man does in high school or college doesn't matter.  Had a 17-year-old black teenager done this - Supreme Court?  Hell, he'd be lucky to still be ALIVE.

All this, and I have to see memes that attack her and not him?

And then there's this one. 

You know, I have three boys.  Yeah, I don't want them falsely accused.  One of them was - not of sexual assault, but other hurtful lies. 

But the whole idea that I would not want women to come forward?  What a croc!  I am not fortunate enough to have daughters, but I have women, young and old, in my life, who I do not want to think for one minute can't come forward if something happens.

The overwhelming number of allegations are true.  Yes, they need to be appropriately investigated and verified, but we cannot go back to a society where women live in terror of men because they're afraid to tell.

Come to think of it, we apparently still live in that kind of society.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was right about one thing.  She was afraid she would put herself and her family through hell, and it would all be for nothing.  Even if they believed her, they would still confirm him.

And so far, that looks exactly where we are headed.  The right-wing has fired up their memes, Trump has slurred sexual assault victims once again, and the FBI has all the earmarks of a limited sham of an inverstigation..

For shame, America.  For shame.