As of 5 p.m. the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to pass Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the floor of the Senate. The floor vote is to be delayed by at most a week so that an FBI investigation can look into the sexual assault allegations made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Kavanaugh has denied these allegations.

I am a pretty die-hard liberal when it comes to just about anything, so it’s understandable that I wouldn’t like Kavanaugh or any other conservative Supreme Court nominee at first glance. However, I try to give every candidate, and in this case a nominee, a fair shake. That was, until I heard about the allegations of sexual assault.

I watched the Ford and Kavanaugh hearings religiously throughout the school day, much to my teachers chagrin. And honestly, I was shocked. I was moved by Ford’s haunting recollection, and almost started crying in the middle of my Latin class. She said the main thing that stuck with her  through all these years was the laughter, the way her pain and suffering was entertaining to Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, allegedly.

She was 15 years old when this assault allegedly happened in 1982. As a 15-year-old female in 2018, I understand this still happens today, and now I see how the public and select lawmakers handle it.

I’m afraid that condoning the ‘boys will be boys’ attitude will set a bad example for my generation. After all, Supreme Court justices are supposed to be held to a higher standard.  I don’t want my male peers to think that it’s ok to sexually assault a girl in high school because the nominee for the Supreme Court may have.

It makes me upset to think that this is happening during the #MeToo movement. This whole Kavanaugh situation makes it feel like the nation is taking a leap in the wrong direction.

Also, I believe that the nomination process is flawed. In the past, bipartisanship was more common than it is today, and it’s only getting worse, especially when you only need a simple majority to approve a nominee.

I know that the Republicans are desperate to get a nominee that supports their views onto the Supreme Court, but at what cost? Sexual assault shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

The argument that Republican senators continued to make that made my blood pressure rise was that the Democrats were in the wrong for holding onto the allegation for too long. They’re focused on the wrong thing altogether. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey summed it up perfectly when he said that it doesn’t matter if the allegation came out yesterday or today or even tomorrow. If it’s a credible allegation like the one Ford made, then it should be investigated and brought to light.

Unfortunately, it is commonplace for women to experience some form of sexual assault, harassment, or misconduct. I’ve gotten catcalled walking through the halls of Grady High School, and I think just about every girl has. And this isn’t ok.

I’m hopeful that no matter what happens with Kavanaugh, women across the nation who are also outraged by the process will take that fury to the polls and to the streets. Because even if our government fails us, we won’t be silenced. Because nevertheless she persisted.