The whole Kavanaugh caper is emblematic of a Republican Party that cares everything about winning and nothing about this nation's democratic principles. As the Times' Paul Krugman pointed out in a slam-dunk column, the GOP abuses are taking place every day on Capitol Hill where whistle-blowers said to have serious evidence of government misconduct have been mysteriously silenced and in far-flung places like North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers rammed through a controversial budget-veto override by waiting until Democrats were attending a 9/11 commemoration. The only things nearly as bad at the GOP are the top Democrats and newsroom editors pretending that America's slide into authoritarianism is business as usual
But the new allegations about Kavanaugh seem to have touched an especially raw nerve. They have angered just about everybody on the left and on the right. For pro-Trumpers the people supposedly suffering from "economic anxiety" who instead packed rallies largely to scream "Lock her up!" about a woman who dared to run for president the fear of a world where men can't mistreat women without it eventually coming back to them is a fear that passes all understanding, with their anxiety over shrinking misogyny much greater than any supposed terror of rising socialism.
Donald J. Trump✔ @realDonaldTrump
I call for the Resignation of everybody at The New York Times involved in the Kavanaugh SMEAR story, and while you're at it, the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, which is just as phony! They've taken the Old Grey Lady and broken her down, destroyed her virtue and ruined her reputation...
From President Trump himself to the usual Greek chorus of right-wing talking heads, there's fury at the New York Times (which indeed badly botched the presentation of this case, a complicated rabbit hole that you can read about here and here) for doing the legwork that Team Trump prevented the FBI from doing the kind of rage that rings loud for any assault on white-male privilege that you never see for, say, a report on Trump's 7,473rd violation of the Emoluments Clause.
