How much has politics changed in the last 27 years? We’re about to find out. It was 1991 when Anita Hill came forward to allege sexual harassment by then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas when she worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Education Department. Thomas was confirmed anyway but the backlash from women was swift. From The Washington Post:
“Angry about how Hill was questioned and dismissed by the senators, a record number of women ran for office in 1992 – which became known as the Year of the Woman. Only two women served in the Senate during the Thomas hearings. Four more would be elected the next year. Today there are 23 female senators.”
One of those Senators elected in 1992 was Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington. Here is part of her statement on the accusations against Kavanaugh:
“And though we’ve certainly made progress since then … there’s a whole lot that remains the same, and I am already seeing shameful partisan attacks against a woman speaking up about her sexual assault. … I urge my colleagues … to, above all, treat this survivor with empathy and humanity and make sure that the United States Senate in 2018 doesn’t send the signal it sent to millions of women in 1991 who were scared to speak up, afraid to share their stories, and watched on television as someone very much like them was attacked and maligned.”
Add to this, a record number of women running for Congress this fall. So, the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh could have big-time implications. Women are already very unhappy with the current political state of affairs. The gap between women supporting Democrats and Republicans this fall is 25 points! The GOP, already in a world of hurt, should tread lightly. If they didn’t learn their lesson back in ’91, this midterm could be a bigger disaster for a party already teetering.
And Donald Trump is one attack-tweet away from making this situation much worse for the GOP. His son’s tweet didn’t help.
Junior mocks Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser. https://t.co/OnojM3xRF3 pic.twitter.com/Yl82hJlKuX
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) September 17, 2018
In politics, the #MeToo movement is a full-fledged force. Kavanaugh’s accuser is adding more kindling to the fire. From The Washington Post:
“Nine members of Congress have lost their jobs over sex-related scandals in the past year,” Amber Phillips tabulated. Among them: Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).
In Alabama, one of the reddest states in the country, Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore lost a special election last December after five women said he made sexual advances on them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Moore denied any wrongdoing, and his supporters emphasized that the incidents had occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
So, will Senators be willing to listen to Christine Blasey Ford? What price will the GOP pay if they don’t?