The #MeToo movement is suffering from a self-inflicted wound

The #MeToo movement is bleeding profusely from a self-inflicted wound.  Right now, all across America women who support the movement, women who have been victims, women who know victims are crying and wailing because the movement has supposedly taken a hit with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh.

Their scorn and outrage have been leveled at the Republicans and one Democrat who voted for him.  The reality is they should be venting at the Democrats who tried to use this movement in an effort to derail the confirmation.

Every civilized society bases its survival on laws.  And the level of freedom within a society is linked to these laws and their enforcement.  Our Founding Fathers had just won the independence of our great nation through a bloody conflict with arguably the strongest empire of the time.  And they remembered the amount of freedom they enjoyed based on the enforcement of the laws they were subject to. 

One thing that led to the War for Independence was the notion of fair enforcement of the rule of law.  A study of the conflicts that led up to the Boston Massacre shows that a big issue to the colonists was the notion that they were subject to British law, but were not treated as British Citizens.  They were British Subjects.  Heavy handed treatment by military authority was many times excused because they were subjects, but not citizens.

So, when the Constitution was written, the Founders remembered this treatment.  And vowed that all citizens would be treated fairly within the law, to include the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.  This is the basis of our criminal justice system.

Fast forward to 2018, and we find that a sitting Judge is accused of sexual assault.  To be sure, this isn’t a criminal complaint.  And many feel that because this isn’t a criminal complaint, within the realm of a court of law, the notion of innocent until proven guilty does not apply.

The #MeToo movement screams “Believe the Woman!  AT ANY COST!”  When it was learned that Christine Ford was accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault, the movement believed her.  With no further inquiry as to the truth of her allegation, she had to be right.  And overnight, Brett Kavanaugh became a rapist.  And the freedom of the Constitution was turned on its head.

Many have argued that the notion of innocent until proven guilty does not apply here, because this isn’t a criminal trial.  That line of thinking is extremely dangerous.  For several reasons.

First, it doesn’t matter that this is not a criminal trial.  (Many have referred to it as a Job interview.  That’s wrong as well).  The simple fact is, the accusation is of a criminal act.  IF you are going to accuse someone of a criminal act, then the presumption of innocence still applies.  What changes in a situation like this is the level of proof.  In a criminal trial, a case must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  Absent a criminal trial, proof doesn’t need to be as solid.  As Sen Collins stated in her speech on the Senate floor, “fairness would dictate that the claims at least should meet a threshold of “more likely than not” as our standard.”

The second reason that this line of thinking is dangerous is that stated simply, no person would be safe from ANY accusation or character assassination.  Due process, and the presumption of innocence dictates that the burden of proof lies with the accuser.  But the #MeToo movement would have us throw that due process way, and place the burden of proof on the accused.  As they insisted that Judge Kavanaugh do.

I could list many cases of accusations of sexual assault that were in fact false accusations.  The list of men who have been released from prison for rape convictions following new DNA testing would fill pages to this article.  I could discuss the Duke University Lacrosse Rape case.  But I won’t.  Instead, I’ll ask the reader to look up the Rosewood Massacre, and the allegations of Fannie Taylor.

There is much we know about the Ford accusations.  But there is even more we don’t know.  The facts are rather simple.  She made an accusation to her Representative on July 6^th.  A letter was sent to Sen Feinstein on July 30^th.  The first hints of the accusation occurred on September 12^th.  After that, it was a circus trying to get testimony and investigations into the allegations.  On the one side, the Democrats demanded a full FBI investigation into the allegations.  This is important, and I will comment on it in a bit.

The Republicans, to their credit, attempted to investigate the allegations with extreme deference to Ford.  Even offering to travel to her to hear her testimony.  They moved deadlines twice, in an attempt to hear her testimony.  And finally, she agreed.  In another move to appear sympathetic, they chose a woman to ask her questions, rather than having a panel of men appear to bash a woman witness.

We’ve been over the story, and its proof or lack of it many times, so I will just summarize:  There is no, no corroborating evidence to suggest that Brett Kavanaugh was the individual that tried to sexually assault Christine Ford.  None whatsoever.  It comes down to her story against his story, and as Senator Collins said in her speech, the testimony does not reach the lowest threshold of “more likely than not”.

But then, this is no surprise to the Democrats of the Senate.  Let’s look back at what I said earlier.  Feinstein knew about the allegations on July 30^th.  She did not provide the letter to the FBI until September 13^th.  Why?  Because she new it was unprovable.  They knew at the time that Fords BFF was going to dispute the allegation, or at least would not corroborate it.  If she had called for an investigation in July, it would have shown now corroborating testimony, and the allegation would have died then.

But that didn’t matter to Feinstein.  She was banking on the #MeToo movement.  A movement that has wreaked havoc on Hollywood, and in a couple of cases, Congress itself.  She didn’t need it to be true.  She just needed an allegation serious enough to call for further investigation.  In doing so, she hoped that he would either withdraw, or an investigation would last long enough for the current Senate term to run out.  She was banking on a withdrawal or that the Democrats would take over the Senate after the elections.  Which would then make any nomination by President Trump un-confirmable.

Simply put, she used the #MeToo movement, and it backfired.

And this is where I come back to the #MeToo and the self-inflicted wound.  They have embraced Christine Ford as a victim.  They believe her, even as her testimony is proven so full of holes as to be laughable.  And this is their problem.

Sexual Assault has touched my family on a few occasions.  And false accusations have also touched us.  I won’t go into detail here in this public forum.  I state this to say that I do support the #MeToo movement.  But I also support Due Process.

Was Christine Ford sexually assaulted?  I do not doubt that she may have been assaulted at some time in her youth.  But I do not for one minute believe that it was Brett Kavanaugh.  I’m ready to believe any victim of sexual assault.  But I’m not going to ignore due process and convict a man on an allegation alone.

The #MeToo movement should embrace Christine Ford.  But they hurt themselves when they accept with no corroboration that her attacker was Brett Kavanaugh.  The Democrats know this.  But they used the movement, and that was nothing more than politics.