Senators, today you are going to make one of the most important decisions set before you not only in recent times, but ever, because you are to Decide the kind of country that we live in. The matter before you goes beyond the Supreme Court now. Brett Kavanaugh is an unfortunate bystander caught in the no-man’s land between the armies on this battlefield. The results of this battle will determine the following things:
- Will our centuries-old system of due process, the presumption of innocence, and equal justice prevail, or will this nation descend into the chaos of mob rule, with the multitude being forced to register with the Court of Star Chamber?
- Will guilt, the law, and public policy itself be determined by the strength of the evidence or the identities of the people involved and the inconsistent, capricious whims of the mob?
The gravity of this situation is not exaggerated. Never before has a public figure been so viciously attacked with such poor evidence. It is now up to you to decide the course of Brett Kavanaugh’s life, and in so doing, decide the lives of all innocent people in this country for all time to come.
Our centuries-old standards of law and justice, our hard-won value of reason and empiricism, and the very fabric our culture itself, have never been in as great a danger as they are at this moment. By confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States, you will have sent a message to the mob that they will be held to account for their demagoguery and their fraud on the nation. If you decide to ruin Brett Kavanaugh on the basis of the house of cards that they count as “evidence,” and a smear campaign which can fairly be described as a transparent hoax, you will not only empower your enemies and put yourselves in peril, but send an ominous message to the entire world.
With you it now rests either to preserve our legal tradition and our culture or to surrender it to the yoke of a mob of fanatics who wish to make only themselves, their whims, and their desire for power the standard by which we live our lives. By capitulating to them, you will make them the de facto rulers of our country, surrendering our Constitution and our posterity to despotism. Having won the victory here, they will return, making bolder and even more brazen demands. However, by rebuffing them, you will signal to them the limits of their power, show them that their coup won’t be tolerated, and that their disreputable behavior won’t become the standard by which we live, no matter how much they may bay and snarl with their temper tantrums.
There will be those with weak-willed constitutions among you that urge you not to fight and who, in their cowardice, will find it advisable to capitulate to the mob. These may shake the resolutions of the rest of you. If, on the other hand, the strongest among you choose to fight the mob before the poison tongues of the weak-willed reach the rest, there is no doubt that you will prevail, because, absent dramatic new revelations, the facts will be on your side.
You must decide the country we all live in. If you choose to send the mob packing and confirm Brett Kavanaugh, you will preserve the fabric of our society as we know it and have the grateful thanks of your supporters, who will come to the polls to support you. Further, you will leave behind you the grateful memories of all generations to come. If, on the other hand, you choose not to fight, reject Brett Kavanaugh, and surrender our nation into the hands of the mob, you will have invited unmitigated chaos, your supporters will make you pay for it, and your memory will be lamented for all time.
It now remains for you to decide which course you wish to take. Do the right thing.
