During his campaign for president, Joe Biden promised that if elected and given a chance he would nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. After Justice Stephen Breyer stepped down, Biden got the chance and nominated the highly qualified (by the standards of this system) judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. This was supposed to be a win for the Democrats, getting a younger appointee on the court AND making the court (and the whole system) seem more “legitimate” by appointing the first Black woman Supreme Court justice.

Never mind the fact that “diversity” and “inclusion” within the power structures of this system don't change the oppressive nature of this system, or of its highest court—which has given “legal” backing to this system’s crimes, from slavery and lynching, to Japanese internment and police terror. Never mind the fact that the court is currently dominated by a fascist majority which is right now preparing to gut or overturn women’s right to abortion, as well as other fundamental rights, and the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson (KBJ) will do nothing to change that.

In fact, what has already happened with this appointment is that the forces of white supremacy and fascism have been strengthened. For three days of Senate confirmation hearings this past week, sneering and snarling Republicans attacked KBJ with unprecedented venom and lies, forcing her to “dance to the tune” of these racist white Senators,¹ while Democrats largely sat back and applauded her “professionalism,” “composure,” and “perseverance”—in other words, her ability to endure and accommodate to oppressors.

These hearings were not just a “circus,” as some liberals have bemoaned, but an assault and a major move by fascist Republicans to set the terms, further normalizing and promoting their horrific agenda. Here are three examples of how they did this:

1) On the first day, Christian fascist senator Josh Hawley charged KBJ with “letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes,” and throughout the hearing Republicans repeatedly hammered her with the accusation of being “soft” on child sex offenders. This is a complete lie. In fact, as a judge KBJ handed out sentences to convicted child pornography offenders that were in line with most other judges. But this lie does serve two big fascist objectives:

First, it appeals to, normalizes, and incites the QAnon section of their “base” (about 25 percent of Republicans, according to polls) who believe the literally insane conspiracy theory that the government is run by liberal pedophiles, and that a holy war must be waged to exact vengeance and “save the children.” This is no different from the old-school “blood libel” lies about Jews murdering Christian children and using their blood for religious rituals, which were spread for centuries in Europe and used to “justify” anti-Semitic mass murder. Now, the American fascists in the Republican Party are trying to usher in a new Dark Ages, fanning the flames of QAnon lunacy in order to build up an army of mindless MAGA mobs ready to carry out genocidal violence against all those they regard as enemies.

Second, it is a major attack on the rule of law, and the idea that punishments handed out by judges ought to fit standards that are good for society as a whole, and not any greater—as opposed to basing punishment on revenge, mob-mentality bloodlust, and appeals to “victim’s rights."²

2) Republicans attacked KBJ for her work as a federal public defender representing four prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, where the U.S. brutally tortured hundreds of people in the name of the “war on terror” (really a war OF terror), illegally denying them trials and lawyers for years, and STILL continues to hold dozens of people. Of the four KBJ defended, none were convicted, some were never even charged, and all of them were ultimately released.

Leading up to the hearings, the Republican National Committee tweeted, “Ketanji Brown Jackson’s record also includes defending terrorists.” Stop right there and think about what is being argued for—that people accused of some crimes should not be entitled to a legal defense, and that defending people accused of these crimes amounts to endorsing those crimes!

During the hearings, Senators Graham and Corbyn went after KBJ for allegedly calling George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld “war criminals.” First of all, Bush and Rumsfeld ARE war criminals, and not the least of their crimes was running a torture camp in Guantánamo! As it turned out, KBJ didn’t exactly call them war criminals, but she did file a habeas corpus petition on behalf of her clients, which briefly mentions Bush and Rumsfeld, and alleges “torture and other inhumane treatment.” Well-established, irrefutable FACTS.

But look at how these Republi-fascists flipped reality upside down, and made her dance to their tune: In response to this line of “questioning,” KBJ apologetically said she was just representing her clients and “did not intend to disparage the President or the Secretary of Defense.”

3) As part of their vicious nationwide white supremacist campaign against “Critical Race Theory”—banning books, taking over school boards, and passing laws to prevent any teaching of the true history and reality of racial oppression—the Republi-fascists baselessly attacked KBJ at the hearing for supposedly having a “hidden agenda to incorporate critical race theory into our legal system,” as fascist senator Marsha Blackburn said. Blackburn also accused KBJ of praising the New York Times’s 1619 Project and the idea that “the U.S. is a fundamentally racist country.” In fact, KBJ had merely said that the 1619 Project—which sheds some important light on slavery and its legacy—was “provocative.” And, in fact, the U.S. IS a fundamentally racist country, founded on the enslavement and horrible, outrageous LIE of subhuman status of Black people, genocide of Native peoples, theft of land from Mexico, and the exploitation and demonization of successive waves of immigrants. A country whose armed enforcers routinely gun down unarmed Black and other oppressed nationality people, and which now leads the world in mass incarcerating its minority population.

The hearing went to new levels of racist idiocy when Ted Cruz held up an enlargement of a children’s book called Antiracist Baby—which is in the library of a grade school that KBJ is on the board of (and also apparently in the library of Ted Cruz’s kid’s school)—and asked her the ridiculous question of whether she thinks “babies are racist.”

This would’ve been a great opportunity to expose these moronic modern-day Nazi book burners. Instead, KBJ replied, "I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist… that they are victims, that they are oppressors.” In doing this, she gave legitimacy to the fascist attacks on Critical Race Theory—once again, dancing to their tune. Compare KBJ’s response to this line of attack, with Bob Avakian’s response in his article “RACISM—WHITE KIDS NEED TO LEARN ABOUT IT.”

While this whole fascist assault was going on, what did the Democrat senators do? Did the chair of the hearings rein in the fascists? Did they go on the counter-offensive? Not really. Instead they repeatedly prompted KBJ to talk about her personal connections to cops, including several family members who were longtime police officers. This was their idea of establishing KBJ’s “qualifications.”

One of the only Democrats who came to KBJ’s defense was Corey Booker, who called out “insults here that were shocking to me.” He ended his emotional speech on day 3 of the hearings with these remarks:

This country is getting better and better and better. And when that final vote happens and you ascend onto the... onto the highest court in the land, I’m going to rejoice. And I’m going to tell you right now, the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, will be better because of you.

Really Corey?? The “greatest country in the world”?? “Getting better and better and better”?? WTF are you talking about??

All this forcefully demonstrated three basic points:

1) As Bob Avakian put it:

The Republicans have become a fascist party—a party based on open and aggressive white supremacy, male supremacy, and other oppressive relations—a party convinced that only it deserves to rule, moving to manipulate elections and suppress votes in order to gain and hold onto power, refusing to accept the outcome of elections it does not win, determined to gut and pervert “the rule of law,” trample on people’s rights, and adopt what amounts to an undisguised capitalist dictatorship, ready to use violence not only against masses of people but also against its rivals in the ruling class.

2) The Democrats cannot and will not fight fascism the way it needs to be fought, because they represent the same fundamental system. And the lies they spread about “progress” and “democracy for all," the cover of “diversity” and “inclusion” they use to disguise the true nature of this system, can’t hide the foul stench of a barbaric racist country that tortures people, and has now brought forward an all-out fascist movement aiming to seize power and take these crimes to new levels.

3) This hearing tore off the facade of “unity” around Ukraine or any kind of “normalcy,” revealing the profound crisis and deepening divisions in this country. If/when KBJ gets through this meatgrinder (quite possibly with only 50 Democratic votes, and no Republicans), no honest person—who is not deluding themselves or trying to delude others—can celebrate this. There is no “victory” in a Black woman being berated and humiliated by a pack of lying fascist jackals, and then getting to be part of the court that could soon decimate the lives of Black people and women (unless there is massive resistance from below that changes the equation like RiseUp4AbortionRights.org is calling for). Here is a reality check for all the liberals applauding KBJ for her “bravery” in the face of this fascist assault: True bravery does not lie in enduring, accommodating, biting your tongue and conciliating with oppressors so that you can get IN on this oppressive system… but in telling the truth and taking up the fight to get RID of this system through revolution.