Macho senators confirm a controversial Supreme Court nominee. Where are you, female America?

BY SOUMANOU SALIFOU

The rushed confirmation barely an hour ago this Saturday of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which was in doubt about a week ago, came as a shock to some, but not to all. The drama surrounding the controversial confirmation of a judge accused of sexual assault by several women not only is typical of the corrupt atmosphere brought to Washington by Trump, but is also a wake-up call for female America, in a country that proved in 2016 that it was not ready for a female president.

There is probably no accusation more crushing for a man than one of sexual assault, even when, after a thorough investigation, the accusation turns out to be false—which appears not to be the case of the Kavanaugh confirmation. One could, therefore, understand Judge Kavanaugh’s desperate attempt to fight off the accusation.

Thanks to pressure from the opposition party, the nominee’s first accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor, told her credible story to the lawmakers. The lawmakers also gave the nominee a chance to defend himself—which he did in an aggressive way, showing little respect to some of the lawmakers on the opposition side.

But, at the end of the day, it was a corrupt process in which several witnesses, including one who provided Dr. Ford’s lawyer with an account that appears to corroborate the assault, were not interviewed by the FBI or heard by the lawmakers.

This came as no surprise in the midst of the corruption brought along and cultivated with passion by the man who was elected nearly two years ago as the 45th president of one of the strongest democracies on the planet.

Trump, who surrounded himself during his campaign for the presidency with some of the most corrupt members of our society, did not win the 2016 election only thanks to his apparent collusion with U.S. worst historical enemy, Russia—though that’s probably the heaviest weapon he used. It turned out that this great democracy also was not ready to elect a woman-president, unlike the poor African nation of Liberia, the Philippines, or Germany. Even some female Americans proved antagonistic to the first—and amply qualified—female U.S. presidential candidate that was Hillary Clinton (if anyone remembers a bitter also-run named Carli Fiorina.)

That the female Republican senator from Maine, Susan Collins, cast one of the few precious votes that led to the confirmation of the shaky Supreme Court nominee with a vote of 50 to 48, proves shocking but did not go without consequences for the Maine senator who, after the confirmation, stated she didn’t believe Kavanaugh assaulted Ford. After Collins announced her intention to vote for the confirmation yesterday, the crowdfunding website where activists are raising money to defeat her in 2020 crushed as a result of being inundated with pledges.

The female community, including victims of sexual assaults who sided with Dr. Ford and other accusers of Kavanaugh whom nobody wanted to hear, did not stay silent. Some of the female protesters present in the senate viewing chamber had to be dragged out by the Capitol (Parliament Building) Police, while Trump’s Republican senators—who include some decent men but who are only scared of displeasing their president—savored the victory they had won for the president.

As he enjoyed the moment, Texas Republican senator John Cornyn spoke in his speech of “mob rule” in reference to the large wave of protests on Capitol Hill against Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Female America, you’ve heard John Cornyn and the Republican Majority Leader of the Senate, as well as the Republican chairman of the Senate judiciary committee that confirmed Kavanaugh without due process following the strong accusations of sexual assault and his propensity for heavy drinking and getting belligerent afterward. You hold a card stronger than those used today by these powerful macho men in the senate: the mighty power to vote next month, and on 3 November 2020.

Soumanou Salifou is the founder, CEO and publisher of The African magazine.