I would think that if you are going to grant somebody a lifetime position with as much power as that of a Supreme Court Justice, you would want that person to be beyond reproach. Instead, Republicans seem determined to ram through Brett Kavanaugh on a standard of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
As I noted in my last post, “innocent until proven guilty” is a standard unavailable to the poor.[1] Indeed, we blame the poor for being poor,[2] the homeless for being homeless.[3] And I strongly doubt women who have come forward to accuse men of rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment, only to find themselves accused and slut-shamed, feel that the standard has applied to them. Read more
- [1]David Benfell, “Clarity on Brett Kavanaugh,” Not Housebroken, September 24, 2018, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/09/24/clarity-on-brett-kavanaugh/↩
- [2]Kristina Cooke, David Rohde, and Ryan McNeill, “The Undeserving Poor,” Atlantic, December 20, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/12/the-undeserving-poor/266507/; Herbert J. Gans, The War Against The Poor: The Underclass And Antipoverty Policy (New York: Basic, 1995); Henry A. Giroux, “Neoliberalism and the Machinery of Disposability,” Truthout, April 8, 2014, http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/22958-neoliberalism-and-the-machinery-of-disposability; Michael B. Katz, “How America abandoned its ‘undeserving’ poor,” Salon, December 21, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/12/21/how_america_abandoned_its_undeserving_poor; Lucy Mangan, “If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath,” Guardian, January 24, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/24/if-you-dont-understand-poverty-youre-a-sociopath; Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004).↩
- [3]Gary Blasi, “The 1% wants to ban sleeping in cars – because it hurts their ‘quality of life’,” Guardian, April 15, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/15/ban-sleeping-in-cars-homeless-silicon-valley; Tana Ganeva, “5 shocking ways America abuses its homeless,” Salon, September 13, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/09/13/5_shocking_ways_america_abuses_its_homeless_partner/; Alastair Gee, “Low-income workers who live in RVs are being ‘chased out’ of Silicon Valley streets,” Guardian, June 29, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/29/low-income-workers-rvs-palo-alto-california-homeless; Rich Gutierrez and Leslie Patron, “Displacing the Unprofitable and Undesirable in California’s San Jose,” Truthdig, April 22, 2017, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/displacing_unprofitable_undesirable_in_san_joses_fountain_alley_20170419; Monica Potts, “Dispossessed in the Land of Dreams,” New Republic, December 13, 2018, https://newrepublic.com/article/124476/dispossessed-land-dreams; Stephanie Thomson, “We shouldn’t treat the homeless like criminals,” Guardian, August 25, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/25/we-shouldnt-treat-the-homeless-like-criminals; Emily Alpert Reyes, “As businesses cite blight, overnight RV parking bans on L.A. streets grow — and the homeless scramble,” Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rv-homeless-20180317-story.html; David Whiting, “11,000 sign petition to clear homeless from Santa Ana River Trail; state of emergency considered,” Orange County Register, August 31, 2017, http://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/31/11000-sign-petition-to-clear-homeless-from-santa-ana-river-trail-state-of-emergency-considered/↩