I believe that the Kavanaugh hearing was an example of the cultural decay that has reached to the top levels of our society. It is obvious to me and others that it was more important to to win at all costs than it was to discover the truth. There was no compunction for causing emotional pain to the family of Brett Kavanaugh. Quite the opposite; there was an attitude of self-righteous delight in hopefully becoming the hero of the day if they could bring Trump’s nominee down.
This self-righteousness was best illustrated by Senator Cory Booker who, with unbelievably shameless hubris, described himself as having a present day “Spartacus moment.” He pretended to sacrifice his career by breaking Senate rules to facilitate bringing to light confidential documents in order to uncover the alleged misdeeds of Kavanaugh. The problem was, the documents were not confidential, and were already made public in the hours before Senator Booker’s “Spartacus moment.” It has been proven that Senator Booker was made aware of that fact well before his attempt to impress both the public and the media. He was doing little more than grandstanding for personal acclaim. All at the expense of truth, and more importantly, at the expense of a noble career and a fine family.
This behavior is indicative of a culture in decline. Senators, as James Madison wrote, have a duty to consider national interests, not just the narrow interests of one party or person. When one Senator, or in the case of the Kavanaugh hearing, a group of Senators set aside the interests of the nation in order to protect their own interests there is within that behavior a sign of cultural decay. As Samuel Adams wrote in 1775, “Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable [i.e. beyond criticism] characters.”
“The battle for the culture refers to the struggle over the principles, sentiments, ideas, and political attitudes that define the permissible and the impermissible, the acceptable and the unacceptable, the preferred and the disdained, in speech, expression, attitude, conduct, and politics.” (William J. Bennett) The conduct on the left in the Kavanaugh hearing was not a reflection of the principles once held by our society. Regrettably this behavior was deemed permissible by most on the left, and some on the right. This was evident in the reporting by the mainstream media. Their one sided reporting, and justification of the conduct displayed by the left, served to encourage those in our society who have already compromised their behavior by staging protests, rather than presenting ideas, in the belief that the display of hate and anger will change things.
Sadly, if the left and the mainstream media have their way these constant protests ultimately will force changes if for no other reason than people grow weary of their behavior. They rarely if ever offer a reasonable solution to any real or conceived problem, instead they feel protests fueled by hatred and anger is necessary to bring down any opposing views. Any polite and productive discussion is prevented by accusations of racism, misogyny, bigotry, homophobia or anything else that serves to discredit those that disagree with their point of view. This is all a sure sign that our culture is in decline.
Some might argue that our culture is not in decay, but is only adjusting to this new era of social media, instant news reporting and access to more information than ever before. Others will say that not only is our culture in decay, but it is just a few steps from being totally destroyed. There may be some truth in both conclusions. We are in a new age where it seems cultural adjustments are made on a daily basis. The adjustments come so quickly that there appears to be little time to assess the ramifications. Because of this there is the reality of current, and danger of future, cultural decline.