I think I’ll weigh on the Brett Kavanaugh thing, okay? I wouldn’t do it unless I had something to say that is different from what I’ve heard in the media. It’s been talked to death, I know, but there’s something I think people are missing.
“He’s a good guy. That’s not the Brett I know,” said various classmates who have signed letters of support.
So what’s missing? Isn’t that the end of the story?
“He pushed me to the bed, placed his hand over my mouth and got on top of me, attempting to remove my clothes,” said Christine Blasey Ford. “His friend Mark Judge, kind of jumped on us knocking everybody to the floor and I was able to collect myself and escape.”
There’s a glaring difference between the two descriptions of Kavanaugh, and it’s not just one is bad and the other good.
Shifting gears a bit, I do these resume, job search, interviewing workshops for folks looking to better their job hunting skills. One of the tips I give them is to make sure your accomplishments are specific. “I was the best worker at my old job” isn’t as strong as, “I exceeded my sales quotas by 25% in four consecutive quarters” or “I was awarded with employee of the month among 40 employees for the month of July 2018.”
Those are specific achievements and tell us much more than, I was a hard worker, or I was liked, or I was a good guy.
Now do you see it?
A criminal can be a good guy. A criminal isn’t defined 24/7 by his criminal activity. Actions can be discrete. A person can rob a bank and still be a loving son and friend, a “good guy.” In fact, don’t we hear it a lot? He seemed like such a good guy, I never would have expected that type of behavior from him. It’s almost cliché.
Okay, so what’s the takeaway here? For starters, I want Mr. Kavanaugh’s resume to contain specifics. He needs to firm up his statements of “I’m a good guy” with something that demonstrates his good guyness. What are those actions that make him a good guy? Tell us more about his character? For example:
“Brett was the kind of guy that would always look out for others. Now, I know there was alcohol at these parties, and yes, Brett was there, but he was always looking out for others. If you had too much to drink, he’d make sure you were okay. Since he was on the football team and a respected leader, when he asked you for your keys, you didn’t refuse. That’s the kind of guy he was. There was this time I watched him charm the keys out of the hands of a much bigger boy. He just kind of disarmed him, didn’t embarrass him. The guy afterward acted like Brett had just done him a great favor, which he did, of course, but you know how these things can get problematic.”
Or
“I remember distinctly, this one time that Brett intervened with a girl that looked cornered by a drunk young man. He didn’t make a scene or get in a fight or anything, but just the force of his character was able to cut off the unwanted affections from the young man and usher the young woman away. He looked out for the girls, and I think he knew that some of the boys could be problematic. But that was not Brett.”
Or
“It wasn’t enough for Brett to achieve, he wanted to make sure that others did as well. In addition to the service hours that were required by the high school, he went out of his way to establish study sessions, giving of his limited free time between football and basketball practice to make sure that his classmates were not falling behind. When we say he was a good guy, that’s what we mean. He didn’t just stick to his achievements, he wanted everyone to achieve. If you look at the class as a whole, you will notice that Brett’s class had a higher average GPA than classes before and after. I can’t prove it, but I think it had something to do with Brett.”
But I ain’t heard none of that. Not even a peep, other than “That’s not the Brett I know” or “He’s a good guy.” All I hear is the stories of a paper tiger, an entitled douchbag who has managed to keep his head down and maintain the status quo for his entire life, checking the boxes, being a generically “good guy” in the same way that white men who occupy high positions have gotten passes for decades – just on the strength of their outwardly normative behavior.
Let’s be clear. There are specific allegations against him. Those specific allegations cannot be dismissed by “That’s not the Brett I know.” If you want to portray Brett’s character, you’re going to have to come up with some specific stories of that demonstrate that character.
UPDATE (Later this same day – I swear I’m not making this up): Well, shit, Brett, you don’t seem like a good guy AT ALL.