On the Attempt to defeat the Kavanaugh Nomination.

The attempt by progressives to deny Brett Kavanaugh a seat on the supreme court by using sexual assault allegations dating back to his teenage years and youth in the 1970s and early 1980s is best described as a 'decapitation strike'. The problem with such decapitation strikes is that they are very risky (eg Bush 2s attempt at a decapitation strike against the Baathist regime in Iraq, a historical disaster). It has to strike the target, a clean shot that takes your opponent down quickly.

Was the use of this strategy of 'decapitation strike' a  good bet or was it a distraction? I leave aside the moral and emotional dimension of the assault allegations and focus on the cold logic of political struggle and calculation. We should remember that the campaign by progressives against Kavanaugh was well underway before the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford. The campaign by progressives focused -prior to the Blasey Ford allegations- on the risk and danger of Kavanaugh's nomination across a whole range of issues, not just on gender and identity issues. The most important risk in having a neoliberal majority in the supreme court is the damage it will inflict on the lives of working and middle-class Americans and their children, many of whom probably voted for Trump in the last elections. The progressive campaign against Kavanaugh's nomination could have built a united progressive campaign that appealed to those working and middle-class American who voted for Trump. However, the campaign that followed the Blasey Ford allegations focused the anti-Kavanaugh forces exclusively around the issue of sexual assault. Almost every awful thing that Brett Kavanaugh has done in his career as an ultra-conservative judge was lost in the outrage. Unfortunately, in the era of social media, moral outrage about an issue, especially over something that occurred thirty years ago and was never reported in all the ensuing years, has a life lasting about 15 minutes. Let's hope progressives now spend their time mobilising against the neo-liberals at the midterm elections. A neo-conservative majority in the supreme court is a danger for all Americans, even Trump supporters and Conservative voters who are opposed to a woman's right to choose. Progressive strategists should be reaching out to them. Continuing popular mobilisation, a progressive legislature, and perhaps in a couple of years, a socially progressive executive (ie President) will be the best defence against a neo-conservative majority in the US supreme court.
7/10/18

Beginning ...and the end

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:1-9 King James Version