Life is not fair -- and neither is the Kavanaugh confirmation process

"I think it's not fair to Judge Kavanaugh for her not to come forward and testify," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in a radio interview.

And, if Ford stands up the Senate, it won't be fair to those Republicans who stuck their necks out and asked that she be invited to testify. Besides Collins, this group includes Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee.

Of course, it's also not fair to Ford that -- after she made clear in the letter she wrote to Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California lodging the accusation against Kavanaugh that she did not want to be identified -- her name was leaked to the media.

None of this is fair to Kavanaugh -- not to mention his wife, daughters and parents. What should have been a beautiful moment for that family has been marred by what seems to be a partisan attempt at character assassination by Democrats.

As for Ford, it's fair to remind her of the stakes. If she doesn't testify, her entire story will never come out. She'll essentially go back to being "anonymous."

Once again, the American people are stuck in the middle.

Of course, there are always going to be the partisans who have the miraculous ability to know exactly what happened more than 30 years ago, without hearing testimony from anyone. They've already made up their minds.

But many of us -- perhaps most of us -- don't know whom to believe. We want to be fair to both the accuser and the accused.

GOP pollster Frank Luntz is picking up on that with the groups he surveys.

"The American people believe in fairness," Luntz told Fox News' host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday. "And they believe that everyone deserves their day in court."

But, Luntz added, many wonder just how far we are willing to go back into people's lives to discern what kind of human beings they are today. He found a lot of support for the idea that judging someone for something that may have happened long ago is not fair.

Given that Americans just celebrated Constitution Day and the 231st birthday of our nation's founding document, you had better believe that none of this is fair to the Framers. When they entrusted the Senate with the power to advise and consent, this could not have been what they had in mind.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.