It’s official: America has descended into a reality television show. That a nominee to the Supreme Court could utter multiple demonstrable falsehoods to the United States Senate during his coronation confirmation hearings and still go forward is startling.

Perhaps equally astounding: that the same nominee, faced with plausible claims of sexual assault against him, could angrily put forth, without a shred of evidence, a conspiracy theory naming specific individuals for a “calculated and orchestrated political hit,” while simultaneously maintaining he’ll be totally unbiased once he’s placed on the bench.

Even more unbelievably, the nominee’s tearful, ill-tempered rants and accusations (just “righteous anger,” according to 84-year-old Utah Senator Orrin Hatch)  against his real and imagined enemies were taken at face value by a group of Republican senators who, despite conceding the senator’s accuser who testified about his alleged assault on her three and a half decades ago was credible, were determined to get him to fill the vacancy on the high court no matter what it took.

But most astonishing of all: that the key lawmakers who shepherded the ambitious, smug, and combustible judge into a seat he’s likely to hold for two to three decades were moved to do so out of fealty to a man nearly all of them were deriding, correctly, as a narcissistic, misogynistic, dishonest, racist, greed-driven, publicity-seeking con artist less than three years ago.

But all that aside, Saturday’s 50-48 Senate vote that put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court was without question a major victory for many Americans and the values their words and actions clearly show they espouse.

It was a triumph for those fortunate enough to attend exclusive private schools like Georgetown Prep, Yale University, and Yale Law School, and who believe they and those like them are perpetually entitled to do so. It provided vindication for those who feel white males are under attack by legions of angry women, scary minorities, vengeful liberal media elites, or a lethal combination of all three.

It also confirmed the opinion of the surprising number of people who dismiss any and all decades-old allegations of predatory sexual behavior with, “If it was so bad, why didn’t she report it when it happened?” And perhaps most significantly, it was a grand slam for Machiavellians. Judge Kavanaugh’s elevation to the nation’s highest court was Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the 4^th of July all rolled into one for the already-too-numerous Americans (of all political stripes) who now more than ever have reason to believe that achieving their particular end, whatever it might be, clearly justifies whatever means are necessary to “Get ‘er done.”

There’s a regrettable local angle to this story as well.

During a lengthy speech last Friday explaining her decision to vote in favor of putting Judge Kavanaugh on the Court, Maine Senator Susan Collins, a nominal “moderate Republican,” bemoaned the rise of tribalism in America in general and politicization of the government’s judicial branch in particular.  But her platitude-filled lecture/rationalization, which included nearly as many laudatory remarks about the judge as it did testimonials to the integrity of her fellow senators, never addressed Judge Kavanaugh’s numerous misstatements of fact and lies of omission during his nominal job interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Similarly, she failed to explain why three women with nothing to gain would risk their privacy (and as it turned out in at least one case, her family’s safety) by coming forward with serious allegations about the judge’s past. It also would have been nice for Ms. Collins to explain why she felt someone so blatantly partisan could, without any evidence, claim the Clintons were behind all the allegations against him, yet somehow manage to maintain the impartiality required of any reputable jurist, let alone one seated on the nation’s highest court.

Where exactly was Collins’s righteous indignation in March of 2016, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided refusing to grant a hearing to a judge nominated by a duly elected president with 10 months left in his term was politically acceptable? A year-long vacancy on the nation’s highest court due to her party’s subversion of the Constitution didn’t seem to bother her back then. Given that evident lack of concern, her current rhetorical hand-wringing rings exceptionally hollow.

Best case scenario regarding Susan Collins’s vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh: her decision was uncharacteristically poorly-considered, and at odds with the views of a majority of her thoughtful constituents.

But a far more likely one: she’s nothing more than a grandstanding, pious hypocrite who, when push comes to shove, can be counted on to reliably carry the mail for any Republican president, no matter how corrupt, mendacious, greedy, divisive, or incompetent, when political waters get rough.

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