{"id":11614,"date":"2018-10-04T22:43:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T04:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=11614"},"modified":"2018-10-18T23:42:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T05:42:12","slug":"kavanaugh-vs-the-court-of-public-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2018\/10\/04\/kavanaugh-vs-the-court-of-public-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Kavanaugh vs. The Court of Public Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>s the Nov. 6 midterm elections draw nearer, both sides of the aisle turn to the impending vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation for the U.S. Supreme Court. While the Senate moves closer to Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation vote, both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concern over the impact of Kavanaugh\u2019s alleged assault of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, following the hearing held on Sept. 27 and the ongoing FBI investigation of the case.<\/p>\n

Currently, the Republican party holds the majority of seats in both the House of Representatives (240 out of 435) and the Senate (51 out of 100). Election forecasts from Time, FiveThirtyEight and The Economist predict that Republicans will likely maintain a majority in the Senate, but may lose the majority in the House. Voters from both parties, however, have been left to ponder the impact of last week\u2019s events on the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it has drawn a lot of new eyes to both the midterms and politics as a whole and will result in increased voter turnout,\u201d junior Colton Hunter said.<\/p>\n

Hunter, president of the Harding Young Democrats, said he had already been planning to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, but has seen a recent drive in his fellow Democrats to visit the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic opinion since the hearing has been incredibly divisive,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cIt is my opinion that Kavanaugh\u2019s temperament and way of carrying himself during the hearing have caused him to lose a large number of GOP supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter said he believes Kavanaugh\u2019s entitled, reactive behavior during the trial caused a shift in public opinion. The issue, he added, is no longer a partisan issue, but a gender equality and sexual assault issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was more than just the next chapter in some movement,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cThis was an opportunity for sexual assault victims to have their story told and to gain some measure of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshman Madison Beery, secretary of HUbrave, a sexual assault awareness and advocacy organization on campus, agreed with Hunter\u2019s belief that Kavanaugh\u2019s potential confirmation has raised national attention regarding sexual assault. For Beery, watching the hearing was accompanied by a whirlwind of emotions. She said she initially felt obligated to believe Blasey Ford, but was torn by the end of the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just really sad, and my heart hurt because I didn\u2019t know what to believe at that point,\u201d Beery said.<\/p>\n

Beery said she believes the issue has spiraled to a point of no return. Regardless of who may or may not have told the truth, Beery said she does not believe Kavanaugh will be able to be an unbiased member of the Supreme Court. If a case involving sexual assault or harassment were to appear in the Supreme Court, Beery fears Kavanaugh would side with the accused because he was once accused himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important because he\u2019s about to be a judge. He\u2019s about to be nominated on the Supreme Court, and if we have someone like that up there, we are saying \u2026 that we don\u2019t take it seriously,\u201d Beery said.<\/p>\n

Beery said she is also concerned that some voters will vote strictly based on party lines, even if they, like herself, felt unsure and uneasy after the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who [are] uncertain will either side so much with Kavanaugh that they\u2019re going to vote for the Republican candidate right away, or they\u2019re going to side so much with the Democrats that they are going to vote for them,\u201d Beery said.<\/p>\n

Passionate declarations of partisanship in relation to Kavanaugh\u2019s hearing have been expressed by Democratic and Republican leaders alike over the last week. In an interview with MSNBC on Oct. 2, President Donald Trump lauded his constituents for standing behind the nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think it\u2019s a rallying cry for the Republicans,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey are so in favor of Judge Kavanaugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Nathan Wagner, president of the College Republicans, echoed Trump\u2019s assessment. Wagner said after watching Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh\u2019s hearing, he felt even more motivated to vote in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole hearing felt like a smear campaign and my heart hurt for a man who has done no wrong,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cThe only thing wrong with him is that he is a conservative, and the Left is scared of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagner said he does not feel like public opinion expressed through social media is representative of America\u2019s true feelings. Just as when President Trump was elected to office, Wagner said he believes many outspoken Democrats will be surprised by the results of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look on Twitter and Facebook, you would think that an innocent man was guilty, but learning from the 2016 election, social media doesn\u2019t represent the silent majority,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Oct. 3, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture, a key step in the advancement of Kavanaugh\u2019s nomination. As the process continues, Democrats and Republicans alike will have to wait and see if the judge\u2019s case impacts the outcome of midterm elections, and if so, to what extent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Nov. 6 midterm elections draw nearer, both sides of the aisle turn to the impending vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation for the U.S. Supreme Court. While the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15099,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[394,392,393,378,390,395,391],"class_list":["post-11614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-college-republicans","tag-dr-christine-blasey-ford","tag-harding-young-democrats","tag-hu-brave","tag-judge-brett-kavanaugh","tag-midterm-elections","tag-us-supreme-court"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15099"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}