Collins spent an hour elevating an unrepentant sexual assailant over his victim

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...this is the grotesque face of the republican party.

Link to tweet

Watching (not actually listening) to Susan Collins' hour-long lecture to sexual assault survivors and those of us who actually give a damn about the rights of women and other survivors, I remembered this de Tocqueville quote about power and assumed authority:

Rulers who destroy men's freedom commonly begin by trying to retain its forms. ... They cherish the illusion that they can combine the prerogatives of absolute power with the moral authority that comes from popular assent. - Alexis de Tocqueville

Here are republicans visibly and functionally out of step with the rest of America, yet they moralize down to us from their elevated positions of power. There's no humility, no consideration for the majority of Americans who disagree with them. Just raw, naked power manipulated for their benefit alone.

Consider this vote scheduled for tomorrow. It's a simple majority vote where it used to require a supermajority (60 votes) for advancement of a SC nominee. That's a consequence of the absolute power afforded to the republican party. Once they got the majority, they discarded Senate comity and simply changed the rules to suit their own interests. Garland was just a teaser, this republican party is on a tear.

It's a rampage through our democratic system of government complete with an opposites game that looks to be modeled after Orwell's '1984' - blatant lies presented as truth; one of the nation's most prominent religious leaders trotted out to proclaim that 'not completing the act' isn't rape, no matter that the person he's defending denied even attending such a party.

Kavanaugh went even further, proclaiming several times that, although he really "liked beer," he never drank to excess. That assertion completely at odds with a letter revealed, in his own handwriting, signed 'Bart,' saying beach house neighbors should be warned that they're "loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us."

We're dealing with weak and vulnerable bullies and liars. There is nothing redeemable about the republican party because there's nothing that they appear to care about outside of their sweet selves. But not to despair...some Tennyson to soothe the sour palate:

“Let darkness keep her raven gloss:
Ah, sweeter to be drunk with loss”

We're Democrats, and we're on the right side, if not the winning one. We don't shift to suit the political winds, and we act on principle and conviction, not political expediency. We have an affirming election coming in a few weeks where we can get on with removing these relics of absolute power, these horridly tragic mistakes of popular assent. Lets get on with it.

[wryter2000]

1. I wonder

How many pieces of silver she got for that

[Meadowoak]

2. Lindsey promised to touch up her roots, and give her a landing strip.

[peekaloo]

5. Thank you. That really made me laugh.

and want to puke at the same time.

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3. that would assume she's something else

...other than a republican.

All of that revisionist crap sweating Kavanaugh is her heart and soul, right-wing hooey-gooey poured out in a public confessional that she believed was some sort of valedictorian address for her graduation to the republican mainstream hierarchy.

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4. kick

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6. .

Link to tweet

[wishstar]

7. She conducted a gaslighting whitewash to convince us we didn't really see his despicable performance

when we witnessed a respectful, credible and sincere victim of assault who was brave enough to testify against a rude dishonest enraged bullying drunk who is desperate to get onto our highest court for life and does not want to take any responsibility for his past actions.

Disgusting as well that she and the women behind her were trying to change our perception of the male Senate Repubs who put on a shocking display of aggressive bullying at the hearing to protect their golden boy.