By Jeff Thomas
Gone is the notion that he is a mild mannered, really nice guy. Gone is the girls’ basketball coach who taught sportsmanship and life skills. Gone is the guy who promoted women and women’s rights. Brett Kavanaugh is the big brained, beer guzzling, underaged drinking, belligerent, partisan ideologue. The only question that really remains is should a guy like this be promoted to the Supreme Court?
How Much Do You Drink Senator?
After a made for TV drama that captured the imagination of millions of Americans, Judge Brett Kavanaugh proclaimed his life was permanently ruined. His hostility was only contained by the huge amounts of water he consumed as he yelled, jeered, insulted, and refused to answer members of the Senate Judiciary committee. Republicans egged him on – “You have nothing to apologize for!” yelled Lindsay Graham, while Democrats pressured him to ask for an FBI investigation. Through it all, Kavanaugh struggled and fought against the new and unprecedented attacks lodged against a man who went to “the number 1 law school in the country.”
Women Get More Rights
What we are witnessing is a transformation. Even if Judge Kavanaugh is elevated to the SCOTUS, the country has been changed by the process. Women’s rights are much stronger because of the one-week delay. This seemingly small moment is actually a historic seismic event. Privileged white men can no longer simply deny as foolish claims made by women whom they wronged in the past. Say WHAAAT? Those white men who seek power, control and dominion over all things are aghast. They view any shift as an attack. For the privileged, equality is oppression. And they will not go down peacefully.
Thunder and Lighting
The transformation in Kavanaugh’s demeanor and delivery was dramatic. The shift was startling. Faster than lighting and louder than thunder, Kavanaugh delivered the message of privileged white men with defiance, hostility, and a constant look of how-dare-you. Black people remember the dogs and water canons of the 60’s. He was not going down without a fight. Kavanaugh poked his tongue into his jaw so firmly and hurled so many insults, while offering the defense attorney’s plausibly different explanation of the attempted rape charge, that an explosion seemed imminent. “I’m a white man dammit! How dare you question me!”
As of now, white men now can no longer expect to attempt to rape women and still be promoted to the SCOTUS – at least without some pushback. While many will applaud this noteworthy change, others feel a real sense of oppression and fret about changing all that is good with the country. They fully maintain the notion that privileged white men in America know best and should be allowed wide discretion. And they maintain that this latest delay in the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh is in fact a “national disgrace.” Seemingly the times they are a changing just a little. But ever so slightly. While a lifetime appointment to the SCOTUS appears to have a new standard, privileged white men can breathe a sigh of relief. The litmus test for POTUS is very different. President Trump has had many encounters with women and still enjoys the adoration and respect of millions in this great land we share.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
It’s nice to hear a commentary that does not make wide generalities in grouping people by their race and sex (read: make racist remarks). I have no problem with the request for an FBI investigation, and I have a much greater believe in Dr. Ford than white boy. But your headline seems to want more division than agreement. You seem to desire to put kavanaugh in the grouping of all white men are assholes and rape women. I feel no kinship with kavanaugh, Clinton, Bush, or Obama. These people live in a political world. I do not. I trust my friends, and that is how I pick friends. You should be ashamed to try and group people of race together for the crimes of of some asshole. If I remember correctly, the last time we had an allegation of sexual misconduct of a Scotus judge, he was black. And I believed Anita hill, too. I didn’t think black men were more prone to be assholes after the hearings for Judge Thomas, either.
This is the best article I have seen on this topic. Better than The NY Times or Washington Post stuff. Thanks for supplying great analysis and thought provoking content. Kavanaugh should be booted off the bench, much less elevated to the SC
Kavanaugh is horrible and a drunk.
Women of America
Welcome to the minority class.