As U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley pointed out Thursday morning, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford have one thing in common: Both are victims of the viciousness that has taken over our public discourse.

Grassley, R-Iowa, was opening a hearing on accusations Ford made against Kavanaugh. She has said that when she was 15 and he was 17, both were attending a party when he pinned her to a bed, attempted to take off her clothes and clamped his hand over her mouth to prevent her from crying out for help.

Very little concrete evidence has been presented on either side.

But since Ford went public with her allegation, both she and Kavanaugh have been targets to the point that Grassley felt it important to promise both the proceedings on Thursday would be “safe, comfortable and dignified.”

“Vile threats” have been received by both Kavanaugh and Ford. Their families have been threatened.

Why? Let there be no mistake about it. And let there be no acceptance of the claims that politics has nothing to do with the harassment to which both Ford and Kavanaugh have been subjected.

Politics has everything to do with it.

Without pausing to think about the situation – even to consider that it is possible Ford is sincere but at the same time mistaken – some have launched campaigns of harassment against her.

The very same consideration has been ignored by another group determined to intimidate Kavanaugh.

We Americans have a tradition of rough-and-tumble politics. Through most of our history, we have recognized as a people that threatening the safety of people – and their families – was crossing a line. Civility has meant something to us.

We need to get back to that.