This Washington Post article today, headlined "The party of men: Kavanaugh fight risks worsening the Trump GOP’s gender problem", clearly encapsulates one of the major problems besetting the Republican party these days.
The takeover by Donald Trump has hastened the GOP's plunge into eventual irrelevance by growing old and becoming dominated by stodgy, stuffy, boring rich guys -- predominantly white -- while belittling the concerns of women and trying to convince minorities and the underclass that their trickle down economic policies will eventually make them better off.
And then, of course, there is the GOP's absolute disdain for immigrants as its leaders in Congress kiss up to Trump and support his hateful immigration policies designed to cater to his dwindling base of supporters -- even though many of their business constituents need those immigrant workers to stay afloat.
Evidence of this is the scrambling by Trump and the GOP to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, despite emerging questions about whether he sexually abused at least two women in high school and college.
A Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Thursday, in which both Kavanaugh and his initial accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when he was 17 and she was 15, are scheduled to testify.
The big problem for Republicans is that all 11 GOP members of the Judiciary Committee are men. How is that going to look, all these old goats badgering this woman and questioning her veracity? Not good optics, as the PR people like to say. Not good at all.
So what do they do? Their idea is to allow a female staff attorney do the questioning of Ford. But that is so transparent it's pitiful. That's not how these hearings are traditionally done; senators always pose the questions to witnesses so they can get all the media attention. That wouldl be an obvious, rather sad, ploy. The Republicans are in a no-win position on that one.
Then there was the clumsy effort to demonstrate female support for Kavanaugh with a pic that went viral of a big bus emblazoned with the slogan "Women for Kavanaugh." In front of the bus waving banners and wearing big smiles was a group of happy supporters.
Only problem: There were seven men and only six women.
Women for Kavanaugh? What, did those guys all have sex change operations but forgot t wear their wigs and padded bras?
And how about that group of Republican women who pretty much said all 17-year-old boys do that kind of thing in high school. Really? I don't think so.
Then, we have Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) who said he had no intention of ruining a guy's life because of an incident that might have occurred when he was a teenager. And Trump, himself, who says he supports Kavanaugh no matter what. Of course, it was Trump who bragged about grabbing women where he shouldn't and who is renowned for his "admiration" of women.
The Democrats should be ecstatic over all of this, which can only add to the momentum of the big blue wave that is certain to come on November 6 as increasing numbers of Americans continue to grow disgusted with this kind of behavior.