Cla68 wrote:Senator Collins' speech should serve as a seminal, defining moment in the history of women's rights in the US. Why? Because, facing immense pressure, bullying, and emotional manipulation, including physical intimidation of her staff, public heckling, threats that she would be recalled or have her political opponents' funding increased, etc., she, a woman at the peak of her profession and career in a supposedly "man's world", staked out the moral high ground, publicly stood on it, and powerfully and rationally defended it, in making a decision which will likely decisively affect US socio-political culture for decades to come.
Did you actually
listen to this speech? I can't imagine you did, if you really believe that's what's going on here.
We'll probably know in about 2, 3, maybe 4 years, but this is basically a situation where Kavanaugh met with Collins and said, "Naaah, forget everything I've ever said, done, and written - I'm a
moderate! I'm not going to reverse 50 to 100 years of progress in women's rights, I'm not going to eliminate the requirement that health-insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions, I'm not going to turn the US into a corporatist theocracy,
naaah! None of that stuff! Heck,
I'm not even a rapist!" and Collins basically said, "Okay, I believe everything you say, just because you seem like such a nice young man, and as an added bonus, you haven't actually tried to rape me! (Yet!)"
So, in a few years, when the Kavanaugh "Rapist Court" has done all those things, this speech
will go down in history as one of the worst examples of legislator malpractice and gullibility in US history.
Easily. It could easily be added to the "Examples" section of Wikipedia's
Gullibility (T-H-L) article, at the very least. She'll be like the Neville Chamberlain of American jurisprudence.
Then again, maybe Kavanaugh
will go against everything he's done in the past and keep his promises to Collins
et al to maintain a moderate ideological stance, in which case, sure, this speech of hers could be seen as an effort to "stem the overwhelming tide of partisanship." Just remember though, these people are playing a long game - Collins, and possibly you and I as well, may be long-dead by the time the Republicans finally manage to complete their plans. The historians who actually do interpret this speech of hers, if they bother at all, will be the some ones condemning us for causing their coastal cities to be 10 feet underwater while the interior of every continent is a toxic desert.