David Walsh (WSWS):
The hysteria over the Cosby case and the Kavanaugh nomination has a logic, despite its unhinged character.
On the part of the Democratic Party and the Times, the incitement of a frenzy over sexual abuse is a conscious political operation.
For the American ruling elite, it is a pressing matter to “change the
subject” from economic inequality; to weaken, dissipate and divide
popular anger toward the wealthy and capitalist rule by pointing to
other guilty parties—men or white people. The aim is to reduce and blunt
class hatred and feeling, divide along gender lines, prevent
as far as possible and for as long as possible independent political and
social action by the working class, slow down and ideologically cripple
such a movement, and build up a reactionary constituency within the
upper-middle class.
This was the response of the Clinton campaign in 2016 to the mass
support for Bernie Sanders: the manipulation of the case of Stanford
student Brock Turner and the focus on Trump’s alleged sexual
carryings-on.
The current furor is a repetition along even more reactionary lines.
It is a reaction to the growth of popular hostility to Trump and
anti-capitalist sentiment generally, to the movement of masses of the
population to the left and to the increase in strike activity. The sex
hysteria is meant to poison the atmosphere, pollute political
consciousness, stop people in their tracks, numb and confuse them. It
has the effect of completely discrediting the entire political system.
The Times and the Democrats are appealing to a well-to-do
social layer that has already moved far to the right. These elements
oppose Trump on a right-wing, anti-democratic basis, including the
#MeToo sexual witch hunt’s explicit renunciation of due process and the
presumption of innocence. All of this is entirely compatible with war,
dictatorship and savage attacks on the mass of working people.
I think there's a conversation that needs to take place. I think our editorial at Third ("Editorial: Stand up before the people or crawl out the door") is part of the conversation as is my son's "Kavanaugh
" and Ann's "No FBI investigation."
This is C.I.'s "
