One foul deed leads to another
After extensive debate, on October 15, 1991, the United States Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court by a vote of 52–48, up to then the narrowest margin in modern times. It was a foul deed and an infamous moment in American history. It was the elevation of a remarkably corrupt and evil man, and we the people have been paying for it ever since.
We were warned of his evil by Anita Hill. In televised hearings Hill related that Thomas sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the EEOC. Many of our legislators ignominiously ignored her. It pains me to say it, but our very own Joe Biden was among them. Not his finest hour either.
It’s hard to believe that at a time not that long ago, women were scarcely heard or believed, and black women doubly so. It’s better today but not by much. The myth still persists that in encounters between men and women, women begin with a distinct disadvantage.
If you doubt that then do a little thought experiment. Imagine for a moment that Stormy Daniels was a man and Donald Trump a woman. Or imagine, for that matter, Anita Hill was a man and Clarence Thomas was a woman. You probably get the idea. The dynamic shifts in the man’s favour. We still have a long way to go.
Despite the warning we are stuck with Clarence Thomas now, just as we are stuck with Brett Kavanaugh. There’s no easy way back. We can’t vote Thomas out in the next election, he’s there for life. Short of impeachment, we’re stuck with the bastard.
Now it has come to light that, for the last 25 years, Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow has extended Clarence Thomas yearly luxury vacations and other gifts for Thomas and his equally infamous wife Ginni. Crow has no less than eight issues before the SCOTUS right now, as I write this. To date Thomas has voted in favour of Crow’s issues every single time without fail or exception.
Thomas began his defence of this new revelation with a lie, claiming Crow never had business before the Court and therefore the gifts didn’t need to be declared or disclosed. Accountable.US, an advocacy group, begs to differ. It said, “For three decades, Crow has served on the board of trustees of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which has published and taken credit for multiple amicus briefs filed with the supreme court by the group’s president and scholars.”
On Thursday, ProPublica reported that Thomas has long accepted trips from Crow including travel on private jets and yachts and stays at exclusive resorts. Justin Elliott, one of the report authors, said, “This is the text of the law ethics lawyers told us he violated. Gifts – such as private jet travel – need to be reported, unless they are ‘food, lodging, or entertainment received as personal hospitality’. This is in the statute itself and predates the recent filing guidance update.”
So what is going to happen to Thomas? Probably nothing. In a conservative court that largely turns its black-robed back on any misdeeds by its members, there is no consequence apart from public outrage. Thomas has demonstrated time and time again that he remains largely undisturbed by such things.
Now, as I write this, I learn of an active shooter at the university in Norman Oklahoma, birthplace of my father and final resting place of my great grandfather and namesake. The infamy of the blight of Republican influence on the land of my birth continues and makes me sad. The ignominious confirmations of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, the wholesale buyout of American politics by the NRA, the loss of Roe v. Wade, ignorance in the form of global warming denialism, all that and more conspire to prove that one foul deed leads to another. And another, and another, and another. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.