The GOP effort to slam through the Kavanaugh nomination is a flashpoint because it reveals the essence of today's GOP: a belief that some people are better than others, and should rule the rest of us. That has been the heart of GOP since 1980; the Kavanaugh case exposes it. 1/

In 1981, Reagan said "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." He meant that regulations protecting workers + the environment hampered businessmen's freedom, and taxes to pay for the bureaucrats to enforce regulations redistributed wealth. 2/

What exactly did "redistributing wealth" mean? It's rooted in American history. Reagan rode to power on a specific image, that of the American cowboy. 3/

That image arose with the cattle industry in the late 1860s, in the midst of Reconstruction, when the Republican federal government put money from new national taxes into an effort to protect black Americans' safety and enable them to compete in the post-Civil War economy. 4/

Southern Democrats, who were murdering ex-slaves and cheating them of wages, howled that taxes "redistributed wealth" from hardworking white men to lazy black people. They held up the cowboy as the perfect American: an individualist who asked nothing of government. 5/

This image was false. The money in the cattle industry went to the rich bosses; cowboys were underpaid. And the government invested more in the West than in any other region. But the image stuck because of the era's contrast between the "free" West and the "corrupt" East. 6/

The myth said that cowboys were hardworking white men (reality: 1/3 were POC), who lived in a male world (reality: women worked in West), and took care of their loving wives at home. That image stood against the East, where POC-- and women-- demanded access to opportunity. 7/

In this image, the demands of POC and women for equality proved that they were inferior: they wanted government to give them stuff paid for by white men. This would destroy society by elevating the wrong folks. White men really were superior, and must control society. 8/

WWII and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s resurrected this image. Opponents insisted that equal rights for POC and women were a redistribution of wealth-- socialism or communism-- as government paid for programs, and bureaucrats (and troops), to expand opportunity. 9/

That money came from tax dollars, which meant, in their minds, a redistribution of wealth. See this bumper sticker from JFK's defense of James Meredith's admission to Ole Miss: 10/

And this North Carolina Ku Klux Klan billboard from 1970: (the caption reads: "Help Fight Communism and Integration." 11/

Defending "individualism" against "communism" meant exalting that individualist symbol, the cowboy. In 1959, there were 26 Westerns on TV. These white men defended "right" against "savages" and had "their true loves waiting" at home. /12

(The Blues Brothers sent this up brilliantly in 1980, just before Reagan's election, contrasting the blues of African American origins, gone to Chicago, and Rawhide itself:) /13

We have looked a lot at how this individualist vision denigrated POC, but it also denigrated white women who wanted opportunities outside the home. They, too, were smeared for asking government to give them benefits (regulations and programs) that would cost tax money. /14

Activists became mythological bra-burners. Women participating in society became "special interests." When Mondale tapped well qualified Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 to be his running mate, 60% of Americans thought he was catering to a "minority." /15 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/feminist-bra-burning/

After 1987, talk radio ran with this image. Rush Limbaugh championed Reagan and Bush saying "all my Heroes have been cowboys," and howled about "feminazis." Then Fox personified this, with scantily clad blonde white women who acted weaker than the dominant men around them. /16

Women who spoke out were isolated, doubted, denigrated, because female submission was a vital part of the era's individualism. Women were just not as good as men. (Men, too, had to conform to winner-take-all dominance, or be labeled a "loser.") /17

Evangelical churches emphasized individualist politics... and women's submission to men. Women who took on public roles as equals to men were vilified. (See, for example, Pelosi, Nancy, and Clinton, Hillary, two names the GOP automatically uses to rally the base.) /18

Women's lives have become increasingly circumscribed and dangerous. The FBI says a "mass shooting" is 4+ deaths, and 54% of such are domestic violence. (But searching "mass shooting" and "domestic violence" turns up a different debate: whether abusers murder strangers.) /19

(That study is here. It is astonishing that this flies so far below the radar.) /20 https://bit.ly/2R7DhSm 

Indeed, women's definition as either wives and mothers and sex objects or as greedy unAmerican harpies has become so acceptable that in 2016 voters elected a man who admitted to sexual assault over a woman who claimed an equal role in American society. /21

Kavanaugh makes the principle behind GOP "individualism" unmissable. How dare a woman question Kavanaugh's fitness for the SC, when GOP Senators want him? He has been groomed for the SC, while she has, one might say, "no rights which [a] white man is bound to respect." /22

That quote is from the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which read black Americans out of society and established that slaveholders could run the country as they wished. And, like that moment, this one has galvanized Americans who oppose turning the nation into an oligarchy. /23

For this is what Kavanaugh represents: the idea that a few elite leaders should run the country on their own terms, taking whatever they want. Don't think of your daughters or wives alone, because they are coming for everyone: your healthcare, your social security, your pay. /24

And now that real Americans who care about equality and democracy are pushing back, these oligarchs are using classic abusive tactics- screams, and threats- to get their way. This pattern will not stop until we, the people, stand up and refuse to accept it any longer. /25