Reminder:
70.5% of Atlas are Trump hating Democrats.
29.5% of Atlas are unbiased and balanced individuals and wait for evidence for reaching a conclusion.
I fancy myself in the minority here. That being said, I believe that Trump should rescind the nomination.
No matter what the outcome here, this thing will not end well. If the Senate votes to confirm Kavanaugh, he will be under a cloud for life. This allegation is not about the bad behavior of a Clarence Thomas; it's about a violent crime of False Imprisonment and Attempted Sexual Battery (based on Florida Law, anyway). The accuser, skittish about testifying at the time, has produced a non-deceptive polygraph result on the matter, and has therapeutic evidence of the kind of traumatization that would suggest that she has, indeed, been the victim of a sexual trauma of some sort. And the story she had told is consistent with the sort of damaged person she appears to be. This might not be valid in a criminal trial, but it is valid in the court of public opinion on a matter such as this.
To a coherent (albeit uncorroborated) story of victimization, what can Kavanaugh come up with? "Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire!"? Some people believe that and there is, indeed, the possibility that she is lying, and making the whole thing up out of whole cloth, but that is likely a minority viewpoint. I believe that a majority of Americans think there's something to the allegation, that includes those who think Kavanaugh did something raunchy, but not sexually assaultive, and not all of these people are a "No" on Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh could well be the victim of a smear. Ms. Ford has me on board, but she's not testified yet, and while I understand her reluctance, I've been deceived before. That, however, is secondary to the effect a Justice with the kind of suspicion Kavanaugh would have hanging over him possibly for life, as he takes on elevation to the SCOTUS as a Justice. It would diminish the opinion people have of the Court, and the SCOTUS has an interest in its orders being obeyed. That objective is compromised when someone who, in the mind of many, does not obey fundamental laws in his own life, is elevated to that of a JUSTICE. Think about that name, "JUSTICE". Mr. Justice Kavanaugh. There will be forever congnitive dissonance with that name.
Trump needs to protect the SCOTUS and rescind the nomination. He needs to nominate someone who won't have this problem. He can do so and state his belief in Kavanaugh's side of the story if he wants while sticking to the idea that he is doing this to protect the Court. That's what should be done, IMO. I suppose that taking this route would require a degree of calm and graciousness, and I'm honestly not sure that Trump can pull that off.
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