https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/brett-kavanaugh-limits-of-social-class-privilege-for-conservatives/
Brett Kavanaugh and the Limits of Social-Class Privilege for Conservatives
By DAVID FRENCH
October 3, 2018 3:53 PM

But as real as these petty resentments were and are, they pale in comparison to the most important thing. They miss the real roots of Ivy rage. Brett Kavanaugh’s true sin isn’t his connections, his popularity, or his prep school. His true sin is that he’s a conservative. And now he’s a particular kind of conservative — a conservative who matters, a conservative who will have the power (and might actually have the convictions) to threaten one or more of the most sacred elements of progressive jurisprudence. He can potentially affect the law and the culture in a profound way.

So what we’re watching is the systematic revocation of his elite privilege. We’re watching the Ivy Borg — and its associated media infrastructure — turn on a man who was never truly part of the collective. The real resentments Ross outlines in his piece act as penalty enhancers, but the true crime remains. The rage would exist even if Kavanaugh had been born in a double-wide and was the first of his family to attend college.
…
There is also value, especially for idealistic young conservatives struggling to navigate a hostile elite culture, in understanding the ways of the world. Speak the truth. Treat people with respect. Maintain the courage of your convictions. But never, ever be deceived into believing that — outside of a precious few close friends — those virtues will earn you one ounce of mercy or compassion when the mob howls for your head.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/brett-kavanaugh-hearings-fight-recalls-jokers-two-boats/
The Battle of Brett Kavanaugh and the Joker’s Two Boats
By KYLE SMITH
October 4, 2018 6:30 AM

But the American capacity to dehumanize the Other is gaining strength in these fraught weeks, the days of the Battle of Brett Kavanaugh. Picture one boat full of New York/San Francisco/D.C.–based Hillary Clinton–loving pro-choice activists and the other full of rural, Evangelical pro-life Christians and National Rifle Association members. Give each boat a detonator to blow up the other one. Would either group be able to hold off on mass murder under the circumstances devised by the Joker?

I doubt it. We’re more afraid of our political adversaries than at any time in many decades. People who are truly terrified may be capable of acts of great malevolence. People who believe they are acting in self-defense, even preventive self-defense in advance of anticipated attack, might do horrific things.
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The Left — the Democrats and their public-relations arm in the mainstream media –thinks that the abortion rights they cherish above all else are under siege, that Kavanaugh is about to blow up the foundation of their politics, and so they do not hesitate to seize upon any smear as a weapon. Why hesitate to blow up the other ship when you’re absolutely convinced the people on it will blow you up as soon as they get the chance?

The wells of truth, in Johnson’s phrase, are once again being poisoned.
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Vague cries to “rise up” don’t look so vague when masked Antifa demonstrators join the party. “We must not be enemies,” Lincoln counseled us in his first inaugural address. “Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.” Anyone feeling confident today that our bonds of affection are stronger than our passions?

So, 1984?

No, his grandfathers pants, and AM Rosenthal’s. His father, ‘Pinch’ Sulzberger, wrecked the paper in a double act with a succession of editors (Max Frankel, Joseph Lelyveld, Howell Raines, Bill Keller, Jill Abramson). Howell Raines was the editor who ran 30+ stories about the membership policies of a golf club in Georgia as well as being personally responsible for hiring Jayson Blair and maintaining him in his position. Camille Paglia offered in 2004 that The Times self-understanding as ‘the paper of record’ was a fantasy and had been for about 20 years. Rosenthal’s retirement in 1986 was the beginning of the slide in quality.

Well, OK, but those pants were already down a long time ago….

He said to me one of the most poignant things I have ever heard. I still remember it vividly, 42 years later. About his sons and nephews, he said, “They took my pants down in public.”

A.G. Sulzberger, the current publisher of the NYT, took his father’s pants down in public.

Yes.