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The Thomas Nomination Debacle
| Article
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20199 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
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1 / 1992 |
952 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
I hope to see nothing as disturbingly ugly in national politics as the Senate inquiry into Anita Hill's charges against Clarence Thomas. Although both were credible witnesses and although perhaps neither was telling the full truth, it was not the fact of inquiry but the mean-spirited initiation of the inquiry and its conduct from both sides of the aisle that dispirited me.
Let me first make it clear that I had ambivalent views about the Thomas nomination. Although, in the context of a climate of opinion in black America that our institutions are racist, I believed the appointment of a black American was a good thing. I had doubts about Thomas, stemming from his adherence to natural law views. Natural law, as contrasted with a belief that human nature bears a complex relationship to social and political life, is based on an outmoded metaphysics that leads to simplistic deductive conclusions, whether in the hands of a conservative Thomas or a liberal Brennan. Its simplistic influence on jurisprudence can be only harmful.
In the second place, although a man should not be blamed for his wife's views, it is not insignificant that Clarence Thomas' wife is reputed to be a faithful member of the Cult Awareness Network, an organization whose loony views rival those of the John Birch Society or the Lyndon La Rouche organization. I once received a missive from it that proclaimed that the existence of a panel on Godelian-type theorems--Kurt Godel, one of the most brilliant logicians of the century, had proved that in mathematical systems, at least as complex as arithmetic, there were true propositions that could not be proved within the axiom set--was evidence that an attempt to brainwash people was going on.
I do not doubt that harassment, sexual or otherwise, is a serious offense that should count against high appointment. Early in my career a senior colleague asked me to propose something in a department meeting and then denounced me for doing so. There was no way, in the absence of a witness, that I could have testified to what had happened without losing, in view of the power relationships that were involved. I was lucky that on other occasions I was able to find independent witnesses to his attempts to destroy me professionally. My wife was subjected to sexual harassment far worse than anything Anita Hill alleged by an employer in the entertainment industry who was vindictive when rejected. Even Hill did not allege recrimination.
I know that one cannot always protest at the time. I know the despair one feels in unequal power
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