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By David Futrelle
So what exactly are we to make of Brett Kavanaugh’s anger? Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee began his testimony this afternoon in something close to a boiling rage, presenting himself as the innocent victim of a vast and improbable conspiracy, angrily denouncing those who, he said, had destroyed his reputation beyond repair.
As the afternoon progressed, he repeatedly interrupted his questioners and defiantly repeated a series of scripted non-answers when the questions cut too deep. His anger seemed contagious; by the end of the day his Republican supporters — most notably South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham — were breaking out in veritable tantrums in the Senate chambers.
So what is going on here? Is Kavanaugh’s rage a conscious strategy, or simply a reflection of who he is?
Let’s consider four possible explanations — starting with what I think is the least likely one.
Kavanaugh is displaying the righteous rage of the falsely accused
As Jeet Heer noted in The New Republic, Kavanaugh’s sometimes furious, sometimes tearful “performance won plaudits from conservatives and right-wingers, who see him as an injured party,” including such, er, luminaries as Donald Trump Jr., the National Review’s Rich Lowry and even (reportedly) the president himself. An op-ed in the right-wing Washington Examiner declared Kavanaugh’s anger to be “clear and righteous.”
Of course, if you believe Christine Blasey Ford and/or Kavanaugh’s other accusers, as I do, you have to conclude that this interpretations is utter bullshit. So let’s move on to what I think are the more plausible explanations:
Kavenaugh is pretending to be angry in order to convince people that he’s innocent
If a display of “clear and righteous” anger is enough to convince many that you really are innocent, what’s to stop a guilty person from pantomiming righteous rage? Guilty criminals do it all the time. “[I]f Kavanaugh is telling the truth … he has every right to be thunderously angry,” wrote Robby Soave on Reason.com. “If Kavanaugh is guilty, his goal is to appear innocent, and thus it would not be out of place for him to sound angry. ”
Kavanaugh has deep anger issues and cannot help himself
In this interpretation, there is nothing strategic about Kavanaugh’s fury; it’s just who he is. A deeply entitled white man from a wealthy background who is used to getting his way, he cannot help lashing out at anyone who challenges him or stands in his path. If this is indeed the root of his rage today, it not only adds credence to what his accusers have said about his behavior; it also suggests he’s temperamentally unsuited to serve as a judge on any level, much less on the Supreme Court.
But there is another possible interpretation that seems to me even more likely than these last two.
Kavanaugh, adopting a strategy of many domestic abusers, has learned how to use his anger to get his way — and is now using it to try to bulldoze himself onto the highest court in the land
In Why Does He Do That (Amazon affiliate link), his invaluable guidebook to abusive men, domestic violence expert Lundy Bancroft notes that abusers’ angry outbursts are often far more strategic than they appear on the surface — even violent tantrums. (Bancroft notes that abusers tend to smash things that belong to partners but rarely their own property.)
As Bancroft sees it, abusers don’t abuse because they have an anger problem; they are angry because they are abusive and entitled. In this interpretation, Kavanaugh isn’t angry because he’s innocent; he’s angry because he believes he should be able to get away with the sort of things that in a just world would have sent him to jail.
He may be so used to using anger as a way to control and intimidate those around him that he has no idea how what it looks like when he throws a tantrum in public. Or maybe he thinks he can get away with it. Because he very well might.
Even Kavanaugh’s longstanding habit of telling blatant, easily disprovable lies may be in part an abusive strategy of gaslighting, an attempt to force his “reality” onto others. In testimony today, Kavanaugh asserted that he hadn’t even bothered to watch Ford’s appearance before the Senate this morning; reporting from the Wall Street Journal seemed to suggest that he had. On Twitter, Slate senior editor Sam Adams said he thought that Kavanaugh’s gaslighting on this issue was more an “assertion of power [than] an attempt to be believed.”
It’s all very Trumpian. Which is probably why Trump was apparently so pleased with his performance today.
Whatever the explanation for Kavanaugh’s behavior today, it’s not a good one. He’s manifestly unfit for the job, so much so that a Supreme Court with him on it would instantly lose all legitimacy. Putting this belligerent, abusive narcissist on the court will throw this country into a constitutional crisis, and one that will be damned near impossible to resolve.
@Scildfreja
The gotcha-gamers also think we hold Hillary responsible for Bill.
The one sliver of hope left is that reportedly Collins, Murkowski, Manchin and Donnelly are all voting the same and Donnelly announced he’s a no. Of course, it doesn’t mean that the other three won’t break with him, but he’s given them the cover to vote no too.
Fuck Flake though. He’s either cowardly or evil. Getting all weepy during Dr. Ford’s testimony and voting yes anyway. The MSM had better stop calling him independent or anti Trump.
Kavanaugh is very pro corporate and anti worker’s rights. It’s extremely boneheaded for men who aren’t wealthy to celebrate him. Apparently dudes like Mick care more about hurting women than their own money and freedom.
I know there’s not much to laugh at right now, but some might find some fierce glee in this mash-up:
https://twitter.com/heyitschili/status/1045718359713681408
Flake’s a coward, a craven coward, the definition of spinelessness, a suit stuffed with straw. Swans about the Senate with speeches about how dangerous Trump is, then votes in line with the Republicans right down the ticket. Swaggers through news interviews about how brave he is while cowering under the impotent, limp whip of Paul Ryan. All this after he resigned and the threat of losing an election evaporated.
Rape survivors came to him yesterday, tearful, begging him to not elevate Kavanaugh to the supreme court. Caught him in an elevator. The worm squirmed as they pinned the door open and shouted at him. He couldn’t even make eye contact, just murmured “I have to get to a meeting” over and over. And then voted to approve anyways.
I hope every woman in his life saw that craven, cowardly display, that casual evil. I hope he never lives it down.
@WWTH,
They always have, they always will. Anchors, dragging through the rocks.
@weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee
I can’t overstate my hatred for those who haven’t voted no to Kavanaugh. Even worse is I can’t believe that Collins, Murkowski, Manchin and Donnell are taking so damn long to vote no. They have the power to end this damn charade and they currently just aren’t.
Unfortunately, WWTH, I think you’re right…
Last news is that senators have asked for a week delays, and the Orange One might even follow them on that.
Not saying that it will go somewhere. Just, the pressure is starting to have some modicum amount of effect.
A reminder: Even if the committee votes yes, it still has to go through the Senate, and as far as I know that needs a simple majority, i.e. a single defector from the Republican lines would be enough.
Don’t lose hope, we are absolutely having an effect. The whole of North America was watching yesterday, and all of those senatorial shitbags know it. Their whole plan was to push this through fast and avoid raising public outcry – now they know that the public outcry will be immense, and it’ll be against the Senate, the one place that they figure they have a reasonable chance of surviving midterm elections.
Doesn’t mean they won’t be stupid and do it anyways, of course – if there’s one thing they’re good at, it’s being horrible. But they know that the consequences are severe, and if they’re anything they’re better at than being horrible, it’s being cowardly.
This ain’t over. Let’em know you’re watching.
Every word out of kavanough’s mouth was scripted. From his righteous indignation, to his little surface lay innocuous, asides-
“I like beer ( translation: what all real men and good old boys like to drink). What do you like to drink, Senator?
The yearbook page alone should have been enough to show he was lying his ass off about being a choir boy in high school- even if all the references to sex and alcohol abuse were fabricated bragging- his hideous character- and how he wanted to be seen shows through every rotten word.
America will survive. I wonder how many Americans will be alive to see it.
@Moggie,
What movie was that black guy from? It is tugging at the back of my mind, but bit yet bubbling to the surface. I keep wanting to say it’s Shaft, but….
My thanks in advance for the answer.
@Redsilkphoenix, that’s Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction.
I’m 3,000 miles away and I’m spitting tacks, even though my experiences are probably better than average.
Flake lives up to his name.
It would be so much better if he were a pastry.
Meanwhile, Judge Poopyface’s performance is a globally infamous disgrace. Even if he wins, he’s still gonna lose.
I honestly thought he would’ve had ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ written on that calendar because the whole thing is such a bloody farce!!
Say we ignore everything about this accusation from Christine Blasey Ford (just as an exercise, mind you, since I happen to believe her completely), Brett Kavanaugh has disqualified himself from judgeship anyway, by lying when the evidence was blatantly there. The evidence being what was in his yearbook, approved by himself, vs. his assertion that he was just a good boy who liked beer.
He could have said that he misbehaved a lot in his youth and encouraged other people to do so, but that he was embarrassed by that time now and had led an exemplary life since (even if that last bit isn’t true). He didn’t.
Instead his response is along the lines of “That didn’t happen”, and if he’s saying that something relatively minor, like being a drunken party boy who was proud of his sexual adventures, didn’t happen when it obviously did, then who knows what else he’ll lie about.
Apologies if WHTM has covered this point already.
I half expected to see ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ written on his calendar as the whole thing was such a farce!
I’m just going to leave here something observed by blogger Mano Singham:
“[Kavanaugh] seemed almost out of control. If Ford had talked like Kavanaugh, she would have been described as hysterical.”
https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2018/09/27/the-brett-kavanaugh-senate-testimony/
I’ve pondered whether it would be appropriate to actually call Kavanaugh’s performance “hysterical”, but I worry that the word is so sexually loaded that I’d be accused of attacking him by feminizing him. I guess sometimes it IS difficult to navigate PC culture. : – )
Flake is a shitbag.
Yeah, pretend to take it seriously for a WHOLE WEEK and then confirm Trump’s Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card anyway.
Scum.
I’m not gonna lie. I listened to this song and cried a little while ago.
Very relevant. The whole album Fight Like a Girl is this week.
My best guess toward explaining Kavanaugh’s OTT anger is a combination of reasons 3 and 4, with Nick’s and rockybird23’s explanations added in.
@Buttercup
You’ve gotten everything backwards. Sure, he’ll probably be confirmed, but thanks to Harris, Booker, Feinstein and Ford, it doesn’t matter anymore. The moment the midterms are over and the Dems take control, the creepy fucker’ll be impeached ten times over; even the most pro-rape and reality-averse Repubs can’t deny him perjuring himself live on international TV. And that’s before we consider the FBI investigation that’s starting up as I type this (thanks to… Flake? Really? The weirdest timeline strikes again).
We just have to win the midterms. Which means voting. Which means not giving up and rolling over.
It’s DARVO (Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender), something abusers are well known for. https://boingboing.net/2018/09/28/kavanaughs-weeping-shouting.html
It reminded me of something I was told when training to work with offenders (the work never materialised, in the event), which is that anger management classes – then a hot new idea – are helpful to many.
But some offenders became more dangerous, because they learned how to use and channel their anger to control and manipulate others and generally get their way. This is what Kavanaugh made me think of.
So – a week. And only to investigate “credible” accusations. Who gets to decide what that covers? I’m assuming it’s going to rule out the allegations of gang rape… because reasons. Or because anything related in any way to Michael Avenatti is now regarded by Republicans as de facto nonsense?