I run the Institute for the Public Trust.
“The sole mission of the Institute for the Public Trust is to find, recruit and train the next Thomas Jeffersons, James Madisons, Benjamin Franklins and Alexander Hamiltons for the state of North Carolina and the nation.
Seldom do we see people of such caliber and talent offer to run for any public office nowadays. They are ‘out there;’ they just don’t run for political office anymore for a wide range of reasons.
The Institute for the Public Trust is committed to changing their minds by teaching them how modern American politics really operates and why they should be part of the solution and not part of the problem by staying on the sidelines.”
Here is the on-going collateral damage of such political machinations we see on traditional and social media every day: a draining of the pool of great people who otherwise might consider using their immense talent to do the basic job of running our self-government at every level.
When is enough “enough” in politics? Character assassination by name-calling has long been a staple of American politics. Teddy Roosevelt called William Howard Taft “a fathead with the brains of a guinea pig.” John Adams was called “a hideous, hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”
Name-calling Americans can handle. But what are the standards of fair play in politics today? Can anyone make an ambiguous legal felony charge against any political figure at any time anywhere?
Every charge of sexual assault is serious. Each one should get immediate attention from law enforcement authorities as soon as it is reported.
Any false accusation is serious as well.
The troubling thing about these last-second accusations from 35+ years ago is that Brett Kavanaugh has been vetted and background-checked six different times by the FBI for his previous stints at the White House and as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals over the past 28 years. None of these accusations came up after exhaustive research and investigation.
Had any cases of abuse or harassment been uncovered earlier, Judge Kavanaugh would have been correctly not confirmed to any of these important high-level public service positions. Those were very important public policy and legal jobs no one should have if proven guilty.
Either the FBI has not been doing its job or hundreds of people who have known or worked with Brett Kavanaugh since 1990 have been colossal liars engaged in a massive coordinated conspiracy that concealed a potential dark side for the past three decades to protect him for a future Supreme Court nomination.
Members of the 2006 Duke lacrosse team were “proven” guilty by the media, pundits and news commentators before any evidence was presented. Once the evidence was fully presented, the Duke lacrosse players were exonerated and the media was discredited along with D.A. Mike Nifong who was publicly humiliated and forced to resign his law license.
If unilateral character destruction methods such as this last-second attack on Brett Kavanaugh succeed without evidence or corroboration, no one will be the winner in the end. Every Democrat considering election or appointment to public office will become a sitting duck for exactly the same salacious legal accusations by Republican operatives and hit groups and vice versa.
If the charges against Judge Kavanaugh are proven true, voters should rightly punish the nine Republican Senators up for re-election at the polls next month for supporting him. If the charges against Judge Kavanaugh are proven specious and untrue, voters should rightly punish the 24 Democratic Senators up for re-election for supporting false testimony against Judge Kavanaugh.
We may never get the next James Madison or George Washington to run for public office if this continues. We may never get anyone to run again.
