Editors note: Submitted by Teresa Jenkins
Chair, Legislative Liaison Committee
The President of the United States is taking time out of what should be a demanding schedule to slam and mock women who have accused one man—Judge Brett Kavanaugh—of sexual misconduct and assault.
The president and Republican legislators have demeaned and ignored women’s account of sexual assault and the party’s base excuses them for it. Is this sexism or something much bigger, something more troubling?
I think it’s much bigger—it’s pure cruelty. The president seems to have a particular taste for the degradation of women and minorities as a way of playing out his personal sense of sexist and racial entitlement. And as he degrades, he plays to those very same entitlements in the base that elected him.
And that is the most distressing aspect to all of this: none of what we are witnessing is out of step with what his base wants. He is advancing an agenda of white male identity politics for those in his camp and in his corner.
While it’s true that one can never predict what will come out of this White House, there is one thing we can count on and that is cruelty. Our president by word and deed has made sexism and cruelty great again.
However, the level of women’s anger won’t dissipate between now and November 6, no matter whether Kavanaugh is confirmed or not.
It’s fitting that Trump and GOP lawmakers have sparked a mass movement of women poised to kick them out of office. Women may be angry but beware they are also activated!
