The Senate must confirm him

You don't need a rehash of the highlights of yesterday's Judiciary Committee proceedings. You know all about how both opening statements were compelling, about the general acknowledgement that something traumatic obviously happened to Ford in her adolescence, about how she was not able to follow up the emotional impact with one shred of evidence, how none of the four people she names as being able to corroborate her story have any idea what party she's talking about, how she has no idea who drove her home from the alleged party, the unraveling of the assertion that she is afraid to fly, the detailed evidence Kavanaugh was able to present, and, of course, Lindsey Graham's fiery barrage of fury, which, history will show, was the redemptive crowning achievement of his career.

You don't need another rehash or hot take because that's about all you're going to see if you peruse any opinion sites today.

The bottom line is to be found in one sentence from Jonathan V. Last's Weekly Standard piece entitled "Six Takeaways from the Ford - Kavanaugh Senate JudiciaryHearing:

It’s impossible to look at the Ford-Kavanaugh hearings and not see America as a nation in decline.

But even that is something we already knew. In spite of good economic news and a foreign policy based on a renewed resolve to thwart enemies and adversaries, post-America is still post-America, a place with a thoroughly rotten culture, a nation that has chosen to give its middle finger to God, and which has now elected two pathological narcissists in a row to the presidency. (The last one at least had a consistent ideology, as harmful as it was; the current one is winging it and occasionally gets things right only because actual conservatives he respects have told him particular moves will make him look like a winner.) And, most pertinent here, post-American society's characteristic brittleness is about to give way to an even uglier phase, in which the polarization is going to take ever more dangerous forms.

I saw some tweets yesterday from various folks situated to the right of center - Megan McArdle comes to mind - who are of the view that the Senate must not confirm Kavanaugh, precisely because of the inevitable reaction by the Left.

This strikes me as profoundly misguided. The accurate view, it seems to me, is that not confirming him would kill, and I don't mean that metaphorically, the Republican Party. The base will split off and form something else, and those less invested in the stakes will retreat to their personal lives and do the sick-of-it-all thing.

Again, let's review the totality of the circumstances. Feinstein had Ford's letter in early July and sat on it until the regular confirmation process was over and it was time for a vote. She helped Ford find a leftist legal team that would work pro bono. Kavanaugh has already cleared six FBI background checks. Not only is no federal crime alleged, which means there is no role for the FBI here, that agency would only be asking the same questions Kavanaugh fielded yesterday. These very recent allegations - from Ford, who is bolstered by the credibility of having experienced something bad as a teen, and two other women whose charges are so flimsy as to be instantly dismissible - are at complete odds with what we know about Kavanaugh's sincere faith, his stellar career in law and jurisprudence, the testimony of his many friends from the various phases of his life, his passion for coaching his daughters' basketball team, his happy marriage and stable family life.

There's a tiny chance that the alleged incident from 1982 occurred exactly as Ford depicts it, but it's highly unlikely.

And, yes, the Left's reaction to a Kavanaugh confirmation is going to ratchet up the peril level in this country considerably. The term "war" is going to become more apt.

But at this point, it looks like the votes are there to confirm him. Doing so will put a principled originalist on the Supreme Court.

To fail at this basic task is going to seal post-America's fate: the howling mobs will grind the faces of all decent, normal, freedom-loving and God-worshipping people in this land under their boots.

Get this done, no later than Tuesday, and if possible, sooner.


UPDATE: Flake's in.

UPDATE: The brownshirts have already descended upon Flake. He stood firm, though.