Whatever disputes we have on our own side, the thinking on the right now goes, we have to set them aside and stop a politics of personal destruction, fueled by a moral panic and an uncritical mainstream media that sees itself as an adjunct of the anti-Trump resistance.

These forces have combined to turn Kavanaugh into a folk hero, a stand-in for every American who has found himself falsely accused, or railroaded by malicious hearsay, or facing an unfeeling bureaucracy that treats juvenile missteps as unforgivable sins.

Democrats insist they’re merely seeking to smoke out a potential predator who wants a lifetime gig on the high court. But they’ll find few right-of-center voters and, I suspect, independents willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Any reservoir of trust that existed leaked out under the press of the left’s blatantly underhanded moves and violations of norms.