Well, recently we have been seeing a marvelous display of political theater.  If I were a Broadway reviewer, I would have given it two thumbs up.  It had everything one could want:  a distraught woman, an angry man, posturing choruses of senators.  The interactions among them were marvelous…and like a Greek tragedy, predictable.  One knows the end of the play even at its beginning.

The tragedy of this play is that it was gathered to ferret out the truth about a judge who is being vetted for a lifetime position on the nation’s supreme court.  The standards for this position should be of the highest nature, and the reviewing senators should be striving to confirm this standard.  This was clearly lost in the proceedings that we saw.

The Republicans were interested in getting Mr. Kavenaugh onto the Supreme Court in anticipation of his conservative views overturning the progressive decisions rendered in years past.  The Democrats were interested in blocking this appointment.  Thus, lacking the votes needed to thwart Republican desires, the Democratic minority created the spectacle seen yesterday in hopes of defeating the nomination through the political pressure of public revulsion to violence to a female.

Whether the accusations were true will never be known.  Violence to females is almost always done in seclusion, which leads to a “he said, she said” situation.  Corroborating evidence is scarce at best.  But, in this theater, the truth of the allegations was not the issue.  Illusions were the thing.  Would the illusion be enough to derail Mr. Kavenaugh’s nomination?  Such is the stuff of theater.

What’s tragic is how the lives of two people will be forever smeared by this tableau.  Dr. Ford wanted to perform a public duty as she perceived it.  She also wanted it to be private.  Mr. Kavenaugh wanted to be affirmed to his post cleanly.  Neither got what they wanted.  Dr. Ford was brought before the public without the resolution she wanted.  Mr. Kavenaugh will be joining a colleague, Justice Thomas, for a lifetime of whispers.  Both people were put through a horrible trial for political ends that had nothing to do with them.

Now for a dramatic postscript.  If the situation were reversed and Mr. Kavenaugh were a Democratic nominee, the play would be unchanged.  Rages of umbrage, tearful condolences and peans of heroism would be heard. Hypocrisy would be dripping from the walls.  Americans deserve better.  A pox on all of the actors save the tragic protagonists.