Like you and all but two or three people in this world, I have no idea how much truth there is to the claims of Christine Blasey Ford that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tried to violate her many years ago. I do have an idea that if all we have here is "He Said/She Said," it won't matter. Heck, some right-wingers want that fifth seat on the Supreme Court so badly that it might not stop Kavanaugh's confirmation if he admits it and shows home movies of the attempted rape.
We have reached the stage in this country where some partisans are convinced The Other Side is out to destroy mankind so anything done to stop them is for The Greater Good. Political assassins do not generally think murder is a moral action. They just think it's a lesser and necessary evil than allowing whoever they kill to remain alive and in power.
Apparently, Ms. Ford will testify as will Judge Kavanaugh. It will not be pleasant for either but especially not for Ms. Ford. My cynical side suspects that at least one of her interrogators will feel he has to make it so rough on her that no one else will come forth to corroborate her tale or to tell of a matching encounter with the nominee. For that matter, there are some men out there who feel any woman who comes forth to tell such a story about any man needs to be punished as an example for others.
I absolutely believe there are false claims of sexual impropriety. There are proven, confessed instances of false rape charges and false witnessing in murder cases. Why would there not be false accusations of attempted rape or lesser forms of abuse? Still, it is important that all such charges be investigated and that there not be a climate where women — or even men who have been similarly mistreated by people of greater power — are afraid to say so.
I absolutely do not believe that not coming forward at the time means that a claim is bogus. As I've mentioned, I've had lady friends in the acting profession who suffered close encounters; who found themselves in a room with men of great wealth and power and lawyerly support who had their dicks out, figuratively or literally. One came over here one time in near-hysterics to tell of being in a limo an hour earlier with a very, very, very big star who unzipped and pulled out his very, very, very small member.
She rejected any suggestion of calling in the law. It would be her word against his and he had zillions of bucks, lawyers who could and would probe her past, major studios who would reflexively side with him…and all she had was a story that would be dismissed as her pulling some sort of blackmail or publicity-seeking scheme. She also had a certainty that if she reported such a thing, she'd never get another audition in this town. She was sure it would be way more damaging and painful to her to report the crime than to not report it. The whole point of the #MeToo movement is to make it not as painful.
That particular lady is not around anymore and neither is that very, very, very big star. But we can all certainly imagine a later time when she felt she had to say something…like if other women were telling similar tales to confirm a pattern of such misbehavior a la Cosby or the man was about to get a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. I'm not saying Ms. Ford is surely telling the truth; just that the fact that she didn't tell it then doesn't mean it didn't happen.