Fourteen Jefferson County constituents of Sen. Joe Manchin traveled to his Eastern Panhandle Office in Martinsburg on Thursday, October 4, to ask him to vote against the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Our 12 women and two men expressed varied concerns, not only about Kavanaugh’s arrogant, dismissive and highly partisan performance in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, but also for his stances against LGBTQ rights, gay marriage, voting rights, the environment and a host of decisions against the interests of the general populous in favor of corporations, America’s oligarchs, overly big banking and other financial institutions.

Many in our group said they had opposed Kavanaugh’s being appointed to the Supreme Court based on his record, well before the sexual assault accusations raised by Dr. Ford and then by additional women.

Senator Manchin’s subsequent vote in Kavanaug’s favor leaves us saddened for women generally, for so many of the senator’s constituents and the Supreme Court as an institution. As former Justice Stevens, and more recently a District Court judge have stated, Kavanaugh’s appearance before the Judiciary Committee proved him unfit for the Supreme Court.

To say that the committee hearings and the compromise — and compromised — quickie FBI “investigation” were shams is understatement. The nation is on a slippery slope, with a major political party now largely representing a president fraught with Putin-envy rather than the public interest.

Ed Zahniser and Christine Duewel, Jefferson County