A 21st Century Inquisition

            The Spanish Inquisition is best remembered for torturing Jews until they disavowed their religion and converted to Christianity. I was reminded of this while watching the Senate Judiciary Committee pitting an accuser with no corroborating evidence against a candidate for high office who was denied any presumption of innocence.

            The Spanish Inquisition did not respect the rule of law because it invoked God as its authority. Dr. Ford’s allegations at the committee hearing, sincere and persuasive as they were, would not have brought a conviction in a court of law. But they did in the eyes of Democrats bent on destroying Judge Kavanaugh, regardless of the absence of evidence. Senator Hirono said it best. She believed Dr. Ford because she needed to be believed—because Dr. Ford is a woman and Judge Kavanaugh is a man. Besides, Judge Kavanaugh did not deserve due process because of his conservative philosophy. Grand Inquisitor Torquemada would have agreed with that reasoning: Jews could not be innocent because they were Jews and did not believe in Jesus.

            There was no one named Torquemada in the Senate hearing room. But it was torture nonetheless, a modern Inquisition designed to make the accused quit or be destroyed. The man in the dock refused to quit, so the effort continues to destroy him.

            If Republicans fail to confirm Judge Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, they will be defeated at the polls and may not recover for generations. Unfortunately for Judge Kavanaugh, even if he does ascend to the Supreme Court, he will never be able to heal the wounds to his family and his reputation inflicted by Senator Hirono and Democrat Inquisitors.