Kavanaugh has revealed the insidious force in global politics: toxic masculinity | Jonathan Freedland

A swaggering machismo. A sense of male entitlement. But the instincts of the supreme court nominee stretch far beyond the partisan battles of Washington

When Donald Trump speaks the truth, it’s usually by accident. A choice example came late on last night, after TV audiences in the US and around the world were riveted by the sight of Trump’s choice for the supreme court ranting and raving, his face twisted in fury, as he insisted he was innocent of the sexual assault that had just been detailed in calm, precise terms by Christine Blasey Ford. “Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him,” Trump tweeted, the statement truer and more revealing than he realised.

For Brett Kavanaugh’s astonishing performance, and that of the Republican senators at Thursday’s hearing, shone a light on a phenomenon that Trump both feeds and exemplifies: a sense of male entitlement so extreme it resents any restraint. It is a swaggering machismo that believes rules are for limp-wristed wimps; that in its most radical form places itself above the law. This phenomenon stretches beyond the partisan battles of Washington DC, beyond even the battlefield of sexual harassment: it is instead a core, if underplayed, aspect of the populist wave currently upending the politics of Asia, continental Europe and Britain.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2N9gK4C

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