Three Cheers for Ashley Judd

[caption id="attachment_194323" align="alignnone" width="1200"] NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 15: Actress Ashley Judd attends the championship game of the SEC basketball tournament between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bridgestone Arena on March 15, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)[/caption] While it's impossible to quantify what qualifies as real leadership, Christopher Hitchens came damn near close when he highlighted two preeminent virtues: intellectual honesty and moral courage. Today it seems laughable to expect our leaders to meet these ideals. Moral courage appears limited to those who won't again stand for reelection (Hello, Senators Corker and Flake!) True intellectual honesty appears the refuge of naïve scoundrels who haven't yet figured out that their gullible bases will accept whatever version of the facts their tribal leaders present them.  While the Trump Era has magnified both our national cowardice and factual disconnect, they've been around a while; I'm the first to admit that my own long-deceased political career fell far short of Hitchens' model. That's why I was particularly intrigued in 2014 when the actress, humanitarian and Big Blue Nation superfan Ashley Judd expressed an interest in running for the U.S. Senate. Judd undoubtedly faced long odds in a red state against the formidable Mitch McConnell; but I believed that Judd's candidacy would have served as a unique opportunity to genuinely debate meaningful issues. Because of Judd's celebrity, the local and national media would have to cover her -- this would have been the über-rare confluence of good ratings and earnest policy deliberation. More significantly, having made her acquaintance in pro-environmental activism, I had come to admire how Judd's public life modeled Hitchens' paradigmatic virtues.  Judd had never been shy about tackling third-rail issues, be they the controversial practice of mountaintop removal mining, or her own childhood trauma with sexual abuse. Alas, much of the rest of the state Democratic establishment disagreed. Perhaps too much intellectual honesty and too much moral courage could be a detriment in politics, especially for a liberal in a red state.  I guess Dear Leader was wrong: When you're a star, you can't get away with everything. Or maybe that only applies to male stars. Should I say "applied"? Over the past few weeks, there's been a tectonic shift in our national discussion of gender politics.  Entertainment moguls, media stars, literary lions, even a beloved elderly former President, have come under scrutiny for their alleged mistreatment of women, ranging from crude conversation to sexual assault. All of the dominoes have yet to fall, but it seems that we've reached a new tipping point on the issue of sexual harassment.  Certain behaviors will no longer be tolerated.  Our daughters hopefully will feel safer in the workplace and the community; our sons hopefully will understand how much pain their actions can generate. There are many courageous women who have stepped forward in the past few weeks to help bring about this potential revolution.  But none have been more significant than Ashley Judd. The Fort Sumter of our Uncivil War was an October 5 article in the New York Times that began as follows:

Two decades ago, the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein invited Ashley Judd to the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for what the young actress expected to be a business breakfast meeting. Instead, he had her sent up to his room, where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked if he could give her a massage or she could watch him shower, she recalled in an interview. “How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?” Ms. Judd said she remembers thinking.

The editorial choice was not surprising.  Of all of the incredibly brave women who stepped forward, on-the-record, to share their stories, Ashley Judd was the only A-lister, the only marquee name. Soon many incredibly brave women followed, many with famous names, some with the same ugly details of hotel room invitations and bathrobes and massage offers and showers. But Ashley Judd opened the floodgates.  Judd took an extraordinary career risk, subjecting herself to potentially intense personal scrutiny and retribution.  In so doing, she made it much easier for others to follow her example and say #MeToo. Intellectual honesty comes easy to the actress.  But that kind of moral courage can be excruciating to summon. As Judd admitted this week to fellow Kentuckian Diane Sawyer, she'd struggled with the notion of speaking out about Weinstein for years, even feeling ashamed for not stepping forward earlier. But in the end, Ashley Judd became the living embodiment of Hitchens' virtues.  And our society is all the better because of her example. I hope the next time Ashley Judd comes to Rupp Arena to cheer for her beloved Cats, BBN will stand up to cheer for her...for standing up for her principles...and for all of the women in our lives.