The Tell

The current GOP tactic for refuting the Kavanaugh charges is to say that "every man in America is a target."  This is - in poker terms - a "tell."  Lindsey Graham used this logic when he said that any future Democratic nominee will face these allegations.  The first assumption the GOP makes is that these allegations are false, but they know they can't say that in this day and age, so they move on to "every man is potentially guilty of sexual assault." 

On the one hand, this is simply a way rally their base - which is predominantly older, white men.  These man did not grow up with the same sexual mores that today's kids (hopefully) do.  This generation is having sex later, drinking and doing drugs less and having fewer unwanted pregnancies.  Potentially, that means fewer incidents like the one alleged to happen between Blassy Ford and Kavanaugh. 

But this is about power.  Rape, for that matter, is about power.  The ability of white men - especially from bastions of privilege like Georgetown Prep and Yale - to escape consequences for their actions is ending. You're damned right that will be scary for them. 

My own feelings looking back at my time in the '80s (I'm a few years younger than Kavanaugh) makes me wonder.  I am 100% certain I never pushed through a "No."  I never did what Blassey Ford accuses Kavanaugh of doing.  But I'm a large man.  Did I make a woman uncomfortable?  Just by being a large man?  Perhaps.  But if I want to be a better version of myself, I need to wrestle with that.  If a woman accused me of making her uncomfortable at a party 30 years ago, I would want to apologize and make any gestures of restitution that she might require. 

That's not what Kavanaugh even tried to do.  It's not what Trump would do.  Or Weinstein or Cosby or any of them.

That's the tell.  This is about power, and keeping that power in the hands of white men.