TURMOIL: In the era of the #MeToo movement, the line between social justice and mob rule has become increasingly blurred.
By Ben Diguglielmo, Staff Writer
From the ashes of a noble cause that was once dedicated to the expungement of evil men in powerful positions, a new movement has risen: a movement of lawless turmoil, deficient of the principles of due process that all are entitled to. A movement devoid of fairness and justice, a movement that has become as evil as the system it was created to destroy. A pendulum was set in motion by the #MeToo movement, and it has now reached its inverse extreme.
The disparagement of Justice Brett Kavanaugh as a serial rapist and sexual assaulter, in light of an absurd lack of evidence, is nothing short of a heinous attempt to politically weaponize rape allegations. To say that there is no evidence to corroborate a single one of the claims brought against Justice Kavanaugh would be generous, but not only is there no proof of these crimes ever transpiring, the evidence that they didn’t happen is overwhelming.
Kavanaugh’s prime accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, named four witnesses who she claimed to be at the party where she was allegedly raped by Justice Kavanaugh. Not only have all four of them denied memory of any such party, but two of them outright denied ever knowing Justice Kavanaugh in high school. The fourth witness, Leland Keyser, stated that “Ford’s allies pressured me to change my story” and “I was told that certain things could be spread about me if I didn’t comply.” Despite the crippling evidence against Ford’s case, she has been lauded as a hero and has had her entirely unsubstantiated claims published many times, most notably by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Although past claims have been proven to be significantly unsubstantiated, the creation of new ones is an endless crusade. The most recent of the claims was made by attorney Max Stier, a politically active lawyer who served as a defense attorney for Bill Clinton during the 1998 impeachment proceedings, (within the same time period that Judge Kavanaugh had joined the legal team dedicated to investigating President Clinton). Stier claims that during his time at Yale University, he saw two classmates push a pantless Brett Kavanaugh into the hands of a female student at a house party. However, the alleged victim claims she has no memory of any such thing happening. Despite Stiers’s history of political opposition to Justice Kavanaugh, and the testimony of the alleged victim, the media as well as several popular democratic politicians have once again called for impeachment; most notably Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Robert Francis O’Rourke.
The defamation of Justice Kavanaugh is a prime example of the cultural regression sweeping the nation, a movement that began in order to bring justice, now stands to destroy it. Events such as the witch trial of Justice Kavanaugh create a world of distrust and injustice, a world where journalists, politicians, and activists call for the impeachment and destruction of a man who is not presumed innocent. Whether or not our country tolerates the political weaponization of rape charges will be a test of our national integrity. If permitted, this vile form of defamation has the power to destroy the remnants of American justice and virtue.