The Kavanaugh hearings have been illuminating in many ways.  We have been witness to some incredible ironies, such as the estimable paragon of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, lecturing Judge Kavanaugh about lack of credibility.  Would that Bob Menendez were also on the Judiciary Committee to lecture Kavanaugh about his lack of professional ethics!  But far and away the most significant comment, I think, came from Hawaii's apparent patroness of feminist rights, Senator Mazie Hirono, who said early on that "I just want to say to the men of this country: Just shut up and step up." 

This remark reeks of the attitude that another minority (besides men) in U.S. history had to deal with – namely, African-Americans, who were shamefully told all too often to "know their place."  One can only wonder how well Hirono will do with Hawaiian males in her next re-election bid. 

The Democrats have made polarization politics into an art form – balkanize the electorate, demonize a particular group, rally the faithful around the blazing fire at the stake as the demonized group is destroyed.  But what an interesting group that Hirono and the other Democrats have targeted for pillorying: men.  The subgroup "men" intrinsically breaks down into secondary subgroups such as fathers; uncles; brothers; and, most interesting of all, sons.  You can't tar men without tarring all of the subgroups, and that includes sons. Therein lies the rub. 

Over a hundred million American women have sons.  So these hundred million American women have a problem: how can they trash and dismiss American men if in doing so they trash and dismiss their own sons?  It may be too much to ask of Senator Hirono, but I wonder if Senators Collins and Murkowski – or more importantly, all those moms in Maine and Alaska – are okay with throwing their sons under the bus as Senator Hirono and the accusers of Brett Kavanaugh seem to be.

In the absence of any evidence, it is remarkable to hear so many Americans say, "But I believe Christine Ford."  Do they understand – or care – that they are thereby establishing a precedent whereby their sons and grandsons can have their careers, their relationships, their lives destroyed simply by accusation?  Is that the world that they wish to leave to their sons and grandsons?  Do they hate males so much that they would so condemn their own male children?  I'm guessing that there are lots of moms in the states of Maine and Alaska who disagree, and Collins and Murkowski had better start to tune in to that if they like living and working in D.C. ZIP codes.