“And so, the “enlightened” judges of constitutional states are fulminating against all participation of people’s representatives in legal procedure.” -V.I. Lenin

When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated by President Trump to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court, yet another dividing line was drawn in the country. At first glance, it was hardly surprising. Brett Kavanaugh has had a staunch right-wing judicial record during his tenure as a judge. Kavanaugh is, and continues to be, an outspoken opponent of women’s rights, expressing a desire to overturn Roe Vs. Wade and ban legal abortion. On top of it all, Kavanaugh was accused by multiple women of sexual assault.

The Democrats, while still declaring themselves the “#resistance” to the Trump administration, have shown nothing but cowardice in face of this right-wing nomination. In doing so, they’ve thrown women (and the judicial future of the country) under the bus.

The Trump Administration announced Kavanaugh’s nomination to public outrage and congressional silence. When the nomination was first made, liberal talking heads on 24-hour “news” channels used the nomination to rant, while elected Democrats merely murmured against the nomination. The “#resistance” seemed out of its own hot air and did absolutely no work to cultivate and organize public resistance to the nomination. While there was actual resistance among independent womens’ groups, the Democrats as a whole remained outwardly silent.

Instead, the Democrats left the fight against Brett Kavanaugh to a few individual women. Christine Blasey Ford comes forward first, giving a horrific story of how Kavanaugh brutally sexually assaulted her at a party. While Democrats gave out little tweets in support of Ford, they essentially fed her to the wolves while they cowered behind her. A lone woman, soon to be joined by Deborah Ramirez (who also faced sexual assault at the hands of Kavanaugh), were now to carry the battle themselves, with little to no help from the “#resistance.”

Rather than backing up Ford and Ramirez, the Democrats left them to sink and swim in front of the country on their own. The Republicans launched a smear campaign against the two women, and backed up Kavanaugh with full force. The Democrats remained extremely quiet given the situation, going only so far as asserting the right of the women to give testimony. In the meantime, Ford and Ramirez faced not only the legal and political attacks of the Republican establishment, but faced the even more horrific harassment of the reactionary public. Public attacks, shaming, slandering, and the most offensive of threats came in by the thousands against these two women, causing Dr. Ford to briefly go into hiding with the rest of her family. The victims faced the brunt of reactionary backlash, while Democrats cowered in their shadow, not unlike a child who heard a noise coming from their closet.

Now, Kavanaugh has received the appointment to the Supreme Court and has been confirmed. The judge has been sworn in. The blame of this falls on the shoulders of the Democrats, who have once again proven themselves incapable of defending the interests of the people at large and, in particular, the more oppressed classes of American society. The Democrats had not, at any point, attempted to organize their constitutes into action against the nomination (outside of passive forms of #resistance, such as phone banking). The Democrats put forth two women (a third who never gave her name), who had already publicly faced sexual assault and trauma, to face vicious harassment and threat on their own. The FBI, the secret police of the American imperialist state, who were never given full White House clearance to investigate various witnesses fully (despite witness cooperation and corroboration), published a report against the women who had been victims of Kavanaugh’s sexual assault. Knowing this, key Democrats said they would vote for Kavanaugh. And they have. Now, a highly reactionary, anti-woman judge sits on the Supreme Court.

The Democrats have shown themselves to be inadequate to the task of representing the people, and the most oppressed among us. The “#resistance” continues to do nothing. The ruling class has both parties in their pockets, and the American state on a tight leash. It’s time for the working and oppressed people of America to cast off the shackles of imperialist “democracy,” which actively works against them. It’s time to unite under a revolutionary party, with a revolutionary program, that wishes to not simply fight with the working and oppressed against the elites that work against them, but to cast them out of power and keep those forces from resurfacing. The American Party of Labor will continue to stand up against the imperialist state, its politicians, and the ruling class which presides over all. We will continue to unite the working and oppressed, and we WILL move forward to victory. With victory, the actions against the working oppressed (whether by gender, race, age, national origin, culture, etc.) will cease, and these persecuting forces, who today were enshrined into the highest seat of legal power in the U.S., will be the ones persecuted by the people and their revolutionary program.

Categories: Anti-Fascism, Discrimination, Government, Reactionary Watch, Statements, U.S. News, Women and LGBTQIA+