Shells of Men
- fmcinerney
- Oct 17, 2018
- 5 min read
What went wrong at Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings? Simple. No men showed up.
Every man knows that when accused of sexual assault as Brett Kavanaugh was, the man response is: “This vote is for a position on the Supreme Court. It must be right or the whole Court will be jeopardized for as long as I sit on it. So, hold your confirmation vote until there is a complete FBI investigation. Take six months if you need to. And make sure you bring forward any and all other accusations. Count on my full cooperation.”
And, when neither he nor his accuser were questioned by the FBI and he could see that the investigation was falling far short of requirements, a man would say: “This is incomplete. We need a full investigation, no matter how long it takes. The Supreme Court must not be tainted.”
Kavanaugh failed his man test. Twice in a week. He looks like a man on the outside. But he doesn’t talk or act like one. He is, as Publius’ daughter says, a shell of a man.
Where were the men in the leadership of the GOP Coalition? Mitch McConnel? Shell. Lindsay Graham? Shell. Don Trump? Super shell.
What we are seeing on display here is a subset of the male gender. Has XY chromosomes but isn’t one of us. Thinks and acts in ways that we men cannot understand.
The big problem for women is, what is the split between the men and shells? If it’s 74% shells, how many women will get stuck with them? How can they tell the difference between men and shells when making all-important decisions about whom to be with?
In the age of #MeToo, this distinction between men and shells is no small matter. Kavanaugh was confirmed by a swarm of shells. Not a man among them. Senator Jeff Flake tried to act like a man, something he clearly knows nothing about, but only when cornered by two women in an elevator demanding manly accountability. He asked for the FBI investigation only to promptly cave to be with his fellow shells.
How can the shells run amok like this? Women are 51% of the population but only 23% of the Senate and just under 10% of the GOP coalition. There is no check on their appalling behavior.
The amazing thing to Publius is that when confronted with his Man Moment with so much at stake, Brett Kavanaugh flamed out. His behavior was disgraceful. Every man knows that there can be only one reason. His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, was absolutely right. Kavanaugh the shell could not possibly act like a man. He had to count on the other shells to do the shell thing for him.
They did.
And the GOP women supported them. Don't ask ...
How big is the shell problem? Brooklyn College professor Mitch Langbert said this: “If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex.”
In other words, the shells think Kavanaugh’s behavior is completely normal. As Don Trump emphasized in his Billy Bush rant, it’s what all shells do all the time. It’s how they engage with women and they cannot imagine it being any other way. So, they ask, how can any woman complain about what is normal and expected of any male? Indeed, when a woman asked Senator Orrin Hatch his man question, “Why aren't you brave enough to talk to us and exchange with us?" about his support for Kavanaugh, his shell response was “Grow up.”
Langbert went on to say: “In the future, having committed sexual assault in high school ought to be a prerequisite for all appointments, judicial and political. Those who did not play spin-the-bottle when they were 15 should not be in public life.”
Saying this, Langbert in effect explained why all the shells jumped to Kavanaugh’s sniveling, wretched defense. They would have done the same thing that Kavanaugh did and would defend themselves the same way that he did and fully expect to be defended vigorously by all the other shells.
Don Trump went a step further, mocking Christine Ford and then telling CBS that “It doesn’t matter. We won.” You can’t be more of a shell than this.
Actually, you can be. Trump called his one-time paramour, Stormy Daniels, “Horseface.” This after paying Horseface $150,000 not to talk about their sex life! Super shell.
To his great relief, when Publius asked his wife and daughter if they had received the shell treatment, they both said no. But his bookkeeper said that it had been so bad for her that she got a black belt in karate and bought a gun.
This brings up a huge question for the mid-terms. We cannot vote for shells, no matter the party.
If a male is running and that male is a shell, vote for someone else.
Update December 6, 2018
It doesn't take long for Publius to pay off. The shells cost the GOP coalition an astounding 40 seats in the House in the recent mid-term elections. It still astonishes that the GOP -- Lyndsay Graham in particular -- would do something to scupper the coalition's fortunes so close to an election. Especially when a simple, uncomplicated demand for a full investigation would have derailed the Democrats at no cost and probably some gain.
You have to ask yourself, what are these people thinking? This is not complicated. But, when offered a win, they refused to take it. Orin Hatch's "Grow up" reply quoted above tells us what to expect from the GOP coalition.
We can predict from this that the GOP coalition will, with certainty, not do what Publius said that it must in What the GOP Must Do Now. Indeed, all the evidence to date is that the the coalition is not rethinking its policies and its strategies for implementing them. The consequences will be devastating.
Our multi-party system needs strong parties with clear, understandable goals. The steady dissolution of the GOP coalition after over a century and a half is highly destabilizing.
The shells have a lot to account for. But, shells never step up. It's not in their nature.
March 23, 2019: The Dershowitz Defense
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Alan Dershowitz, a celebrated lawyer whose defense of Dumb Don is legion, did exactly what Publius says a man does. Accused of sexual predation, he demanded that the FBI investigate. Dershowitz knows better than anyone that the damage to his reputation of anything less that is far too great. What did Kavanaugh not get about this?