It’s a rising tide. Momentum from the women of 2017 carries right into 2018.
Oprah Winfrey’s rousing speech at the Golden Globes fueled hopes that the #MeToo movement will be more than just backlash against exploitation and abuse by men. It was also a call for women not just to step up, but to move forward. It was a call to arms.
And two days later, Diane Feinstein took the fight to the entrenched leadership of the Republican Party, by releasing the transcript of testimony from a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, in defiance of Committee Chair Charles Grassley. That was the testimony by Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS on investigations into Trump’s twisted history, that was conducted during the 2016 election.
The transcript of Simpson’s testimony itself—not classified, but kept under wraps by Grassley and his henchmen—revealed just what malicious games Grassley and his allies in deceit such as Lindsey Graham, have been practicing, in their attempt to undermine the investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 election.*
In doing so, Feinstein shocked Grassley, who tried to parry her move by claiming the release might impair the committee’s ability to question other witnesses who might clam up for fear of exposure. At which she simply shook her head and said words to the effect that, it ain’t gonna happen. The fact is that Simpson himself had been calling for the release of the transcript, going as far as an op-ed in the New York Times!
I am not going into the details of the transcript here; suffice it to say that the transcript gives us a window into what a real investigation of Trump’s shady career looks like. And the view is not pretty. What is also not pretty is the chicanery of Grassley to turn the Senate investigation away from Russian election meddling and toward the bearers of some bad news about the president and his ties to foreign governments.
The content of Simpsons’ testimony is not my point here; the point is the jolt to the dynamics of a situation in which for far too long, those in power—mostly men—have assumed that they could get away with nothing more complicated than concealing the truth, and their underlings, particularly women, would stay silent.
Feinstein: a quiet warrior for all of us
When I first heard the news of Feinstein upsetting the complacent Senatorial applecart, I was totally psyched—punching the air psyched. And shocked. Feinstein is known for her tenacity and determination, but this was determination taken to a new level. Any woman who gets elected to the Senate has to be tough as nails, so I have always assumed Feinstein, for all her quiet manner, has the guts of a prizefighter—but more of a counterpuncher than an attacker. She has a reputation for respecting Senate rules and trying to work within the bounds of Senatorial decorum. So it seemed stunning that she would take on Charles Grassley publicly.
But Diane Feinstein had had enough. She had had enough of the deceit and underhandedness of, not just Charles Grassley and the judiciary committee, but of the entire Republican propaganda machine that is chewing away at the foundations of our democracy.
So she did what would seem the commonsense thing to do—release to the public an unclassified document that would tell us a lot about what sort of person, businessman, con-man, probable crook and possible traitor Donald Trump is.
All she wanted was to get the truth out. Diane Feinstein doesn’t grandstand. She was not trying to be a hero for women or for Democrats or any particular cause. She was trying to serve the public. ALL of us, women and men, and even those who vote against her. If she has now become something of a hero for women or Democrats—certainly she has become a hero of mine—it’s something of a byproduct.
Now Grassley is spouting indignation, and he surely intends to make Feinstein pay for her uppityness at some later date. I’m betting she is preparing to face the consequences; but whatever she pays, she’ll be paying it on our behalf.
But it’s just possible that Grassley, and others of his ilk, may be facing a future in which uppityness becomes the rule rather than the exception. After all, these are disruptive times, and what could be more disruptive than women gaining parity with men? It’s one kind of disruption we can actually cheer about. 🙂
It’s more than mere coincidence that Oprah’s galvanizing speech and Diane Feinstein’s galvanizing action took place within the first week of 2018. The women’s wave of 2017 has come crashing over the barriers into 2018, and let’s hope it keeps going.
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* You have to wonder what the judgement of history will be on Charles
Grassley, Lindsey Graham and the gang. The clouds of fake news that swirl around everything political at this time may make it impossible for anyone ever to figure out what’s going on with some of these Republicans. Graham doesn’t come up for election until 2020, Grassley 2022. Their seats are safe for now (Grassley regularly wins in landslides), so, all told, the suspicion grows in my mind that somehow they are tied financially into the Russian oligarchy. I hate to color myself as a conspiracy theorist (1.5% at present), but besides pure partisanship I just don’t understand their motives.