Louder may help us heal, but it may not help us win

Justice Kavanaugh and Our Need for Political Self-care

Like a lot of people, I have been struggling with how to respond to the events of the last couple weeks. As a straight white male raised in the same DC prep school culture that was (rightly) indicted during the Kavanaugh confirmation process, I find myself compelled to reexamine my own upbringing, to stand up as an ally for my wife and friends who are at once furious, scared, and in pain, and to consider, as a political operative, what I can do to help find a coherent, forward-looking path.

I have been doing my best to react in all the ways a human must and in all the ways our society and culture needs people like me to and trying to stay out of the way in the ways we need people like me to as well. But there's only one mind and one heart at work here, so how do I know when to respond with comfort, with fury, or with strategy?

The Kavanaugh confirmation battle inflamed deep wounds, both personal and political, and created new ones. The shared personal pain given voice by Dr. Ford’s testimony was amplified by the political reality that surfacing her pain had no value, that women would be ignored (again) regardless of facts, and that the GOP wanted this particular person as Supreme Court Justice more than it cared…