This editorial is one part in a two-part series offering different perspectives on Brett Kavanaugh and the #MeToo Movement. Read the counter-perspective: “Relax Men, If Kavanaugh Isn’t Confirmed Your Future is Still Fine“

There is a phrase that has been uttered for the past several years and it never made sense to me until Sunday.

It was on Sunday when the phrase “the future is female” started to come into focus for me. Hours after Judge Brett Kavanaugh had been sideswiped by an allegation of sexual impropriety from a woman named Christine Blasey Ford that the meaning of the phrase began to make sense.

There are certain things that are important to note before I get into the story and my opinion on it. By and large the #MeToo movement has been a positive force in society. Women have, for far too long, suffered in silence as men in positions of power, both physical and financial, were able to abuse and blackmail women with no repercussions.

As proven, by the destruction of the careers of famed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and celebrated actor and comedian Bill Cosby, those days are over. But what is frightening is the idea that the pendulum could swing the other way and take innocent men with it on the strength of a mere allegation.

If you believe that is justice for the thousands of years of male domination you likely also believe that murdering white farmers in South Africa to avenge apartheid is also acceptable, and you would be incorrect.

I have no idea if Ford’s accusations against Judge Kavanaugh are factual, an intentional lie motivated by the fact that she is a Democrat voter, activist and donor, or merely two people not remembering events that happened more than three decades ago the same way.

What I do know is that, if Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court is thwarted by the three-decade-old memory of one singular woman, we have embarked into dangerous territory. A territory when the mere word of a woman, who was 15-years-old at the time, is enough to derail a man’s career.

Again, I want to stress that I’m not saying that her allegations are false. I’m not saying that her charges would not, under normal circumstances, deserve to be investigated. What I’m saying is that there is a reality, outside of politics, that has to be addressed.

It is ridiculous to choose now to investigate the accusations. Judge Kavanaugh has, during his career, been subjected to five FBI background checks. Each one an occasion where Ford could have voiced her concerns. He was then nominated for the Supreme Court of the United States and went through a hearing where a cavalcade of questions were asked of him. At the time of that questioning Sen. Dianne Feinstein had received a letter from Ford detailing her accusations, and yet the California senator brought it to no one’s attention.

To postpone this confirmation now, in the 11th hour, to investigate the claims of one woman that she did not bother to voice in three decades would set a dangerous precedent for the future of any nomination of any man, Republican or Democrat.

It is impossible to prove a negative. And it is far more impossible to prove a negative three decades after the event occurred. There is no way for Kavanaugh to prove that his recollection of the events of that day are correct and Ford’s are not. And, similarly, there is no way that Ford could prove that her story is the truth.

What is certain is that Judge Kavanaugh’s word deserves, at minimum, the same weight and the same presumption of truth that Ford’s does. But in the age of #MeToo that is not the case.

The hardcore proponents of the #MeToo movement believe that if a woman makes an accusation it is gospel and must be believed, with no question, and if you do not automatically believe that every woman is incapable of lying or being vindictive you are a misogynist and you hate women.

That is, unless the accusations are against someone like Rep. Keith Ellison whose accusers have been ignored and whose accusations have been summarily dismissed by a media not interested in reporting on them. The same media that has pounced on the charges against Kavanaugh.

But be that as it may, if this is the precedent that is set, that the unproven word of one woman is enough to stop any man from furthering his career, then the future is, in fact, female. Because there would be no way for any man to ever hold high office again.