{"id":8238,"date":"2019-10-05T19:02:28","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T23:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.suitupmaine.org\/?p=8238"},"modified":"2020-10-05T12:28:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T16:28:49","slug":"collins-kavanaugh-year-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.suitupmaine.org\/collins-kavanaugh-year-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement: It’s been a year. And we still remember."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Image Credit: C-Span<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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One year ago, Sen. Susan Collins stood on the Senate floor, offered a 45-minute long defense of Brett Kavanaugh, and announced she would vote to confirm him for the Supreme Court. In doing so, she denied credible accusations<\/a> of sexual assault, disregarded evidence of his extremist views<\/a>, and ignored the majority of her constituents<\/a>, who pleaded with her for months to oppose Kavanaugh. Following her vote, Collins had the best fundraising quarter<\/a> of her career, with almost all the donations coming from out-of-state, dark-money groups that supported Kavanaugh. The guest editorial below, written by Suit Up Maine co-leaders Karin Leuthy and Kelli Whitlock Burton, was published in the Portland Press Herald<\/a> on Oct. 10, 2018, just a few days after Kavanaugh was sworn in. On the anniversary of Collins’ fateful speech, it seemed appropriate to share it again.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Maine Voices: We\u2019re done wasting breath on the likes of Collins and Poliquin<\/span>
Collins’ justification for her vote for Kavanaugh is prompting resistance groups to shift their priority to the ballot box.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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BY\u00a0<\/span>KARIN LEUTHY AND KELLI WHITLOCK BURTON<\/strong> | SPECIAL TO THE PRESS HERALD<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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After the 2016 election, Maine saw an uprising of constituents who came together to advocate for the people and issues left behind by the Trump administration. Made up of dozens of statewide, regional and small-town grassroots groups whose thousands of members share progressive values, Maine\u2019s \u201cresistance\u201d is independent, largely volunteer-driven and almost exclusively women-led. Many of these groups led efforts to oppose Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s Supreme Court nomination through nonviolent civic action, most vocally after Christine Blasey Ford\u2019s sexual assault allegations turned the campaign into a battle over the credibility of survivors and the standing of\u00a0the #MeToo movement<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kavanaugh\u2019s swearing in over the weekend was a bitter pill to swallow. Despite months of working collectively to make the case that this nominee would be bad for Maine and the country, in the end,\u00a0the evidence we presented<\/a>\u00a0did not matter. Neither did credible accusations of\u00a0sexual assault<\/a>; a shocking\u00a0display<\/a>\u00a0of entitlement, belligerence and partisan vitriol, or even\u00a0lying under oath<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resulting loss was especially painful for those whose stories mirrored Ford\u2019s. But Sen. Susan Collins\u2019\u00a0justification<\/a>\u00a0of her vote, both from the Senate floor and since, twisted the knife in a way that is prompting resistance groups to dramatically shift their priorities. Her narrative that Ford \u2013 and, by extension, all with similar stories \u2013 can\u2019t be trusted to identify their attackers, is both shameful and intellectually dishonest and leaves many wondering: If sexual assault, judicial temperament and lying don\u2019t matter to our elected representatives, where do we go from here?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The most immediate answer: to the polls. On Nov. 6, we have an opportunity to force from office those content with leadership that\u00a0mocks<\/a>\u00a0survivors and dismisses sexual assault claims as\u00a0hoaxes<\/a>; devalues women, people of color and LGBTQ individuals; denies the threats posed by our\u00a0enemies<\/a>\u00a0and to our\u00a0planet<\/a>; and refuses to fulfill its duty to uphold ethical standards and provide checks and balances. This is the leadership Collins aligned with on her fateful vote. The only way to achieve the outcomes we want is to win elections. Everything Maine\u2019s resistance cares about depends on voting, and elevating those whose platforms are built on the basic feminist tenets of equity and equality for all people. As Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation has shown, not all feminists are women, and not all women are feminists.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what of our relationship with Collins? Suit Up Maine and similar groups operate under the theory that communicating with elected officials helps them know their constituents\u2019 values and makes it more likely that the officials will make decisions the folks back home approve of, resulting in happy constituents who return the favor in votes. In this sunny ideal of civic engagement, members of Congress seek out input with public forums, open office hours, online questionnaires and town hall meetings and provide thoughtful responses to questions. What Mainers have learned in the past two years is that, for our Republican members of Congress, this standard seems far too high.<\/span><\/p>\n

Weary 2nd District residents have watched Rep. Bruce Poliquin\u00a0scurry into bathrooms<\/a>\u00a0to avoid questions and effectively play a game of hide-and-seek from\u00a0constituents<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the press<\/a>. Collins is just as hard to pin down in person, and her staff is always armed with explanations for why she doesn\u2019t hold regular office hours for constituents visiting D.C., as Sen. Angus King does (she\u2019s too busy), or public forums back home (some people talk too much). Her form-letter responses offer no answers to specific questions, and her public statements voicing vague \u201cconcern\u201d about key issues have a memelike quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Many Mainers are done wasting their time on lawmakers who refuse to engage authentically with their constituents, who vote against their interests, then falsely paint dissatisfied constituents with valid concerns as an \u201c<\/span>angry mob<\/a>.\u201d We are done begging them to perform their sworn duties to provide checks and balances and uphold ethical standards. We don\u2019t have time for that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So for those lawmakers out there who suddenly notice that their phones have stopped ringing, don\u2019t take comfort in the silence. It means we\u2019re busy elsewhere, working to take your seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

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More info on Kavanaugh from our archive<\/h3>\n