In a reaction to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual assault allegation, President Donald Trump said, “It is a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of. This is a very, very — this is a very difficult time. What’s happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice.
“It’s a very scary situation where you’re guilty until proven innocent. My whole life I’ve heard you’re innocent until proven guilty, but now you’re guilty until proven innocent. That is a very, very difficult standard. You could be somebody that was perfect your entire life and somebody could accuse you of something.”
Nothing could be any further from the truth. This is just another tactic Trump and his cabinet are using to placate members of the GOP who might have been shaken up by the public outcry after Kavanaugh’s testimony. Understandably, midterm elections are only a few weeks away, so it wouldn’t look good if the leader of the Republican party showed any weakness.
It’s never enough for men to just be in power. When Kavanaugh took the stand, he stole the spotlight from the real victim, Dr. Ford, and made himself out to be the vulnerable one. Kavanaugh stole a page from the White Woman TearsTM playbook and broke down during his testimony.
The very idea that men are suffering and should be scared of every action they make around women is a joke. Millions of men interact with women daily and don’t cross the line into unwanted attention. But it’s all a show for politic’s sake. Trump is helping elevate Kavanaugh to victimhood; Trump needs to make Dr. Ford look like she is attacking Kavanaugh and his bright future as a Supreme Court Justice.
Kavanaugh claimed his life was shattered during his testimony yet a few short hours after his confirmation he was quickly sworn in as the newest justice of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, and has been working ever since. Dr. Ford on the other hand still can’t return home, receives death threats and was publicly mocked on live television by the president of the United States!
In a poll conducted in 2015, 42 percent of Trump supporters said that white men faced a lot of discrimination in the United States. White men have a history of being the most privileged in the country. What Trump is doing by saying that it’s a scary time for men is a classic fear tactic. It’s coming from the same playbook as critics who say the #MeToo Movement encourages unproven misconduct allegations against men. Trump’s comment is a desperate cry to white men around the country who are now worried about losing their power in society.
Remind me again, who is it a scary time for?
WOMEN
Women have been standing in solidarity with each other for a very long time. Speaking up and speaking out about their experiences together because they are not being taken seriously outside their circles. They don’t feel safe opening up about their sexual assault or misconduct. Women are often criticized for not speaking up sooner but when they do, more often than not they are not believed, brushed aside or publicly humiliated if the man holds enough power.
Twenty seven years ago, Anita Hill sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was absolutely humiliated over and over again for standing up and speaking up against Clarence Thomas. Hill’s character was questioned. Sen. Howell Heflin even asked Hill if she was a scorned woman — if she saw herself as a martyr for the civil rights movement. Women just can’t tell the truth about sexual assault; there just must be some underhanded reason women speak up against men in this manner. And yet it’s men who are living in scary times?
Here’s another scary thought: the Trump Effect. At its lowest point, this creates an increase in bullying in schools because of Trump’s rhetoric used at his rallies and (almost) every one of his daily tweet threads on Twitter. At its highest point, Trump’s words have created a wave of unacceptable behavior heard by millions.
Trump has only been president of the United States for about two years. In that short space of time, he has managed, on every level, to leave a negative impact on the American government long after he’s left the White House. Trump has made the American presidency a laughing matter. In September at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trump tried boasting about his administration’s accomplishments.
He said, “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”
The room filled with other world leaders laughed. Laughed at the very idea of Trump’s young presidency having done more in about two years than any previous American president. This is the man who spoke of scary times for men. A man who has no real regard for the nation’s institutions nor the people within them.
