TPM - Marshall - "Aggression and the Meaning of Kavanaugh's Victory" (important read)

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/aggression-and-the-meaning-of-kavanaughs-victory

By Josh Marshall
October 5, 2018 8:56 pm
Barring some almost unimaginable development, Brett Kavanaugh will be elevated to the Supreme Court tomorrow. In all likelihood he will serve there for decades into the future. I know many of you are disappointed, angry, resolved. I have nothing wise to add to those sentiments. But I do have an observation I would like to share, one which I think helps put in perspective what we’ve witnessed and experienced over the last two to three weeks.

When Dr. Blasey Ford was giving her testimony last week her words were credible and shattering to the hopes of Brett Kavanaugh and his supporters. This isn’t just my take. I was getting reports from Capitol Hill. Republicans were crestfallen and grim about their prospects. Kavanaugh gained an extreme edge by going second in his testimony – something I think was frankly logical and fair. (Someone accuses and then the accused responds.) Still going second was a huge advantage. And I think that to a great degree Kavanaugh saved his own nomination with that performance.

Sure it made lots of people question his judicial temperament, his ability to be any kind of fair arbiter on the Court, even in these hyper-politicized times. It made lots of people think he had at least lied repeatedly by the common sense definition if not technically crossed the line into perjury. But it secured Republican partisans and close to the entirety of Senate GOP behind him.

It’s worth asking why.

There were two salient parts of Kavanaugh’s response. First, while he obviously denied Blasey Ford’s allegation, for the most part he ignored it. He checked the box of denying the claim and then rapidly pivoted to a pure message of aggression, anger and promises to fight the recognized set of political enemies that bind him to his mass and elite supporters. The palpably false claims he made were meant to be and largely were subsumed in a morality play about grievance, aggression and common enemies. To put it more succinctly, Kavanaugh went full Trump. And it worked.

That latter point is the key. It worked.

snip - lots more to read.

[Iliyah]

1. GOPers were going to back him regardless and

trash Dr. Ford. The FBI sham investigation gave them cover. I have not trusted the FBI for a long time. And the GOPs are un-American.

[Girard442]

2. JMM continues to be the gold standard of net journalism.

Next up: maybe some coverage of Dems who can be counted on to bring a shotgun to a knife fight rather than a copy of Roberts Rules of Order.

[BeckyDem]

3. Recommend.