Unless you live under a rock, you've probably been forced to follow the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. If you didn't watch the hearings on TV like I, the recovering political junkie, did, then you probably saw hot takes and opinions on Twitter. Don't have Twitter, and thought you could escape it? Nope! Most people I follow on Instagram (including me...) had tweets, quotes and hot takes as well from the hearings, particularly the strength and awe-inspiring testimony from Dr. Ford on their stories. Don't have Instagram or Twitter, and have no idea what I'm talking about? Oh hunny, it's time to log into Facebook, the cesspool of fake news and people screaming about things they haven't bothered to even read.

That's a long way of saying: everyone has an opinion on Brett Kavanaugh, and most of them do not involve his leanings politically. If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, 1/3 of the men on the Supreme Court of these grand United States will have been publicly accused of sexual assault and/or harassment. If that bothers you, congratulations. You have a more attuned moral compass than the Republican Senators participating in these hearings.

Alright, maybe that's not quite fair. The Republican Senators, however, have made it abundantly clear that they are behind their nominee for the Supreme Court, despite these allegations of sexual misconduct. My number one question around this unrelenting support: there are plenty of judges with similar qualifications, identical viewpoints, and probably an identical personality, so why stick so aggressively to one that has been accused of sexual misconduct? Why, in 2018, after so many politicians were taken down by allegations of misconduct, are they sticking to Kavanaugh like gum on the bottom of my shoe?

I want so desperately to believe that it isn't because they don't believe in rape, that it isn't because they believe that Dr. Ford is trying to push her own political agenda, or wants fame. I want so desperately to believe that it's something that we aren't privy to, but the signs are pointing towards Republican Senators hating women with such a passion that they are willing to overlook all these accusations, all these signs that point toward a man who has abused women for decades.

Glennon Doyle's Twitter account

And that here is the problem. Brett Kavanaugh not immediately being dismissed when these allegations came up is exactly what rape culture has morphed into in 2018: Men in power dismissing the claims of sexual assault survivors in order to advance other powerful men. Rape culture in this culture is the fact that Republican Senators don't even believe their own claim that they don't believe Dr. Ford. It doesn't matter whether or not they believe her: what matters is that they don't care. They don't care that their nominee was accused of sexual misconduct. Because Kavanaugh didn't just sexually harass Dr. Ford, but in a sworn affidavit has been accused of drugging girls at parties with his friends, and would wait in line to gang rape them. How can you hear that, and just not care?

This is rape culture in 2018, and if the Senate confirms Kavanaugh, they are sending a message to every survivor of abuse and sexual misconduct a clear and irreversible message about how this country feels about what happened to them. We need to do better than this.