A deeply divided United States Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on Saturday, as Republicans dismissed sexual assault accusations against the right-wing judge and delivered a major victory to US President Donald Trump.
By a vote of 50-48, the senate gave the 53-year-old Kavanaugh a lifetime job following weeks of fierce debate over sexual violence, alcohol abuse, and privilege that convulsed America just weeks before November 6 congressional elections.
The senate had voted on Friday to close debate on the confirmation of Trump’s nominee by a 51–49 margin, as Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Joe Manchin announced their support for the appeals court judge.
The confirmation adds the arch-reactionary to what will now be America’s most right-wing Supreme Court in over a century and completes an anti-democratic process from which the masses of US citizens were entirely excluded.
With Kavanaugh on the court, the composition of the body will reflect the domination of the financial oligarchy over the political process like never before. Four of the nine justices will have been nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote (George W. Bush and Donald Trump). Including the two judges nominated by Bill Clinton, six of the justices will have been nominated by presidents who received less than 50 percent of votes.
The Democrats opposed Kavanaugh not because of his political record as a supporter of war, torture, deportation, and attacks on the rights of the working class, but rather based on uncorroborated 36-year-old allegations of sexual assault that became the sole focus of the confirmation process.
The liberal opposition to Kavanaugh was never intended to block his nomination. The Democratic party fundamentally agrees with Kavanaugh’s political worldview.
In an editorial board statement on Friday, the liberal New York Times signaled that the Democratic party’s opposition to Kavanaugh was not based on any ideological differences. The newspaper even encouraged Trump to replace Kavanaugh with an equally reactionary justice, so long as the person nominated had not been accused of assault:
“President Trump has no shortage of highly qualified, very conservative candidates to choose from, if he will look beyond this first, deeply compromised choice,” the Times wrote.
The right-wing character of the Democratic party’s opposition to Kavanaugh was hinted at by Republican Senator Susan Collins, who spoke from the senate floor Friday afternoon to defend her decision to vote for Trump’s nominee. At the appellate level, Collins said, Kavanaugh had a voting record almost identical to that of Merrick Garland, who Barack Obama unsuccessfully attempted to elevate to the Supreme Court in 2016.
Garland and Kavanaugh served together on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Collins explained, and voted together in 93 percent of cases. They joined one another’s opinions 96 percent of the time. From 2006, one of the two judges dissented from an opinion written by the other only once.
The Republicans and Democrats each got what they wanted from Kavanaugh’s nomination process. The Republicans secured the confirmation of their nominee while the Democrats succeeded in creating a new narrative leading up to midterm elections.
In television appearances following Friday’s vote, several Democratic party hacks explained that Kavanaugh’s confirmation would increase Democratic support among suburban women.
CNN talking head Gloria Borger explained that the ordeal would boost Democrats running for the US House of Representatives, especially in more affluent suburbs, where women were outraged by accusations against Kavanaugh.
Recent polls show the obsessive focus on allegations of sexual assault will likely benefit Democrats in congressional elections, where suburban voters in swing districts will likely determine the vote.
It’s possible, however, that the Democratic party’s strategy could backfire, especially in swing senate races.
Polls published in recent days show that Republican voters are far more energized than they were before the Democrats attempted to block Kavanaugh’s nomination on the basis of largely uncorroborated sexual assault allegations.
There are concerns among the more astute representatives of the ruling class that the Kavanaugh confirmation charade has done real damage to public support for the institution of the Supreme Court, which has historically been viewed as less susceptible to political pressure than Congress or the White House.
Senator Collins herself said she feared the confirmation “could lead to a lack of public confidence in the judiciary,” something that could be “hugely damaging” to the political establishment.
Fearful of the growth of the class struggle and rising anger among workers over stagnant wages, workplace deaths and injuries, and rising gas, rent, and healthcare costs, the ruling class’s concerns over the legitimacy of its institutions are well-founded.
Polls show increasing disdain for the government and increasing support for socialism, especially amongst young people.
To confront this growing opposition to capitalism, the ruling class has installed a Supreme Court that will protect its privileged position and facilitate state repression by rubber-stamping surveillance, censorship, attacks on immigrants, and the buildup of the state’s police powers.
