Dan Balz: Divisions deepened by battle over the nomination of Kavanaugh

Chief Justice John Roberts, right, administers the Constitutional Oath to Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the Justices' Conference Room of the Supreme Court Building. Photo / AP

Opinion

COMMENT

The confirmation battle over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has left the country as it was before President Donald Trump selected him: deeply divided, politically polarised and with many people hostile toward those of opposing views.

But that hardly means everything has reverted to the status quo.

The divisions have been magnified because of this raw, wrenching moment in the history of the country. The intensity of these kinds of clashes sometimes fades with time, but unless and until that happens, the Kavanaugh confirmation will be register in significant ways - in the midterm elections, at the Supreme Court and on the already growing political divide between women and men.

This Supreme Court nomination was always destined to become a brutal battle, given that Kavanaugh can turn what had been a swing vote when Anthony Kennedy held the seat into a solid conservative one that will shift the balance on the court to the right for many years.

So this was a classic philosophical confrontation between left and right. Republicans started with a stronger hand and took full advantage.

Trump waged the battle as he always does, with full-on tactics that the Democrats could, in the end, not overcome.

But it became more than a political power struggle over the direction of the court when Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when both were in high school, which was followed by other allegations about his misconduct.

All of this brought to the forefront a cultural awakening about the treatment of women by men.

Politically divisive events have become almost commonplace these days, but rarely do they play out so close to what already was seen as a pivotal midterm election. Which is why the most immediate impact of the Kavanaugh confrontation will be seen in the midterm elections. The bases of both parties are now more energised than they were.

For defenders of Kavanaugh, this was, as Trump put it, a scary moment for men who fear they can be falsely accused of sexual harassment.

For the defenders of Ford, and especially for women, the confirmation of Kavanaugh left them wondering what if anything has really changed in the year since the New York Times published its first story about Harvey Weinstein.

All of that suggests that, even in an era of short attention spans, the Kavanaugh confirmation fight could be far more than a mere moment in time.