I recommend Michael Brendan Dougherty’s piece today. As Michael notes so well, there is simply no way to seek justice if you’re hooked on collectivist thinking:
That things like what is described in Ford’s letter “happened all the time” is, I’m sure, true. That it’s “all too consistent with stories” that people heard and their lived experience is also, I’m sure, true. But the question is whether Brett Kavanaugh did something like this. Evidence that stuff like what he’s accused of happened to many people, or that prep-school guys like him always get away with things like this, is not evidence against Brett Kavanaugh.
Indeed it is not. And that is the only question that matters here.
Which brings me to Matthew Dowd, of ABC:
Enough with the “he said, she said” storyline. If this is he said, she said, then let’s believe the she in these scenarios. She has nothing to gain, and everything to lose. For 250 years we have believed the he in these scenarios. Enough is enough.
— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) September 17, 2018
I daresay that Dowd’s outburst has filled him with adrenaline. But the question remains, nevertheless: What can he possibly mean in practice? Even if it were true that “for 250 years we have believed the he in these scenarios,” that premise has no bearing whatsoever on this case. To say, “Well we were biased toward men for a while so let’s be biased toward women for a while instead” is akin to saying “Well, we were biased toward white people for a while so let’s be biased toward black people now.” The first part is almost certainly true. But the latter part? The latter part is abhorrent, and it makes a mockery of what those who have sought change were working toward all along. Bias is still bias, irrespective of its polarity. Individuals are still crushed when they are asked to answer for the herd. There is no consolation in being judged by the ton.