Third Way: My Body, Your Vote
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The modern political scene is no stranger to its fair share of scandals, particularly of the sordid kind. Cases such as the 1991 court hearing regarding sexual harassment allegations brought against then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas by attorney Anita Hill are one among many. This particular case yielded much attention as it resulted in a tumultuous aftermath for Hill who faced harassment and threats over her choice to speak out.
With the ongoing release of the Epstein files and new evidence of federal sexual misconduct cases being presented everyday, one is left to wonder how and why masses of the country's leadership don't have to conduct their work everyday from behind a defendant’s stand. Even more so, how they are able to remain in such important positions of power even after being complicit in these scandals.
Incidences of sexual harassment, abuse, and assault involving congressional representatives, when such cases are even acknowledged, are handled in one of two ways: political weaponery for the left or political weaponry for the right. It is a true rarity when these cases are used as actual methods of seeking justice for the victims of these crimes as opposed to furtherance or deterioration of political careers.
The use of sexual assault allegations as political weaponery is not only deplorable in nature, but disgusting in its execution. Such as is the case of situations like the investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. When Kavanaugh was nominated to the supreme court by President Donald Trump, information regarding the acts of a young Kavanaugh at Yale University were uncovered. The investigations into this case, however detail driven and oriented it was, was not dug out of the archives for the victims sake. It was unearthed to be used as prevention of Kavanaugh holding his proposed position.
That is not to say that Kavanaugh deserved to be elected. He most certainly did not and he must be held accountable for his actions, no matter how long ago they were committed. Expect that he wasn’t. He wasn’t tried and found guilty of these allegations. He didn’t even see the inside of a court room. His punishment for the destruction of another human being was the removal of a job opportunity that wasn’t even his yet. And the victim? Well she had an old scar reopened in a painful and public way. Despite this new light being shone on the situation, justice for her, still, was not served.
This is not Kavanaugh's only allegation of the sort either. Nor is it his earliest. Also around the time of his nomination, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor of psychology, spoke out against Kavanaugh and testified that he had sexually assaulted her at a party when they were in high school.
Ford’s pleas were not heard and her testimony, rather than aid in closing a traumatic piece of her life, instead thrust her and her loved ones into an even larger situation. When news came out that she planned to testify against Kavanaugh, Ford, as well as her family, received death threats and harassing messages which forced them to live in multiple different locations over a short period of time as their locations were discovered and spread quickly.
Not only do these stories speak to the lack of care and respect given to these victims in their time of bravery and strength, but also the villainization of said victims. Rather than admonish political officials for their deplorable choices to abuse, harass, and assault their way through life, a court of law chooses instead to re-traumatize not only victims of the situation but also witnesses.
Within the judicial system, there is already a harsh imbalance of care given to cases of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence without adding in the incredibly public component of a nationally televised and reported upon trial. In order for victims to stand up and speak out, they must gather an amount of strength that is unheard of for many. They risk their entire reputation, and in some cases, their lives, in pursuit of not only justice for themselves and others, but also hopefully the prevention of future offenses by their aggressor.
The political weaponization of sexual violence cases is deplorable, disgusting, and unacceptable. Author Leslie Morgan Steiener put it best when she said that “abuse thrives in silence”. Without the voices of women such as Dr. Christy Blasey Ford, or Deborah Ramirez, or Anita Hill, the world would not know of the horrible acts committed by those they entrust to run the country. Political officials whose entire careers are the care of a nation of individuals needs and wants on a legislative level, prove time and time again that the American people are not their constituents, they are their pawns. Game pieces to be moved and pushed and knocked off the board when they no longer serve their purpose.