A fourteen-year-old
girl… A FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL… A thirty-two-year-old man.
Disgusting.
There will be a
special election in Alabama on December 12, 2017 to elect a United States
Senator. The incumbent, Luther Strange, had been appointed to the post by the
governor of the state to replace Jeff Sessions, who had been selected Attorney
General of the United States by the republican president, Donald Trump. Strange
lost the republican primary election to Roy Moore, a former district attorney
and Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
Roy Moore
has been accused of sexually molesting a fourteen-year-old girl. He denied it.
He was accused of sexually assaulting a sixteen-year-old girl. He denied that
too. He was accused by three additional women of pursuing, dating, and/or
kissing them when they were teen-agers and he was a thirty-something District
Attorney. Mr. Moore denied it all. When asked by Sean Hannity if he dated ANY
teen age girls during his thirties, Mr. Moore’s denial was not absolute, saying
he didn’t remember, but stating that if he did such a thing, it was always with
“their
parent’s permission.”
The republican
party controls the United States Senate by two votes. Normally, the safest
Republican seats in the Senate are the two seats allotted to the state of
Alabama. It would be a true sign of the apocalypse for one of Alabama’s seats
to go to a democrat. The republican party is caught between a rock and the
gates of Hell. The majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell has decided
that he “believes the women”, and has encouraged Moore to terminate his
candidacy. By doing so he signaled to every other republican senator his
expectation that they do the same thing, which they did. So officially, the republican
party has said no to a child molester, even if it opens the doors of the Senate
to a democrat.
Ironically,
McConnell is too wily a politician not to have a plan “B”. It is quite probable
that he believes the voters of Alabama will elect the alleged pedophile anyway.
If that happens, McConnell is laying the groundwork to immediately expel Moore
from the Senate. Once that happens, Donald Trump can fire Jeff Sessions from
his position as Attorney General, with the understanding that the Governor, Kay
Ivey, would promptly give him his old senate seat back. Meanwhile, Trump could
nominate a new attorney general that would not be recused from “the
Russia thing”, and do his bidding to shut all that unpleasantness down.
Mr. Moore
has indicated that he will not step aside. I will not be the only one shocked
if he changes his mind about that. That leaves the decision in the hands of the
people of Alabama, my friends, my family, the people I grew up with. I left
Alabama for good when I was thirty-one years old. I was old enough to
understand the culture of the state. I knew Black people and white people. I
knew poor people, rich people and middle-class people. I had seen bigotry and
charity, equality and discrimination. I was old enough, mature enough, and intelligent
enough to know that dating teen-agers at my age was not just wrong, but immoral
as well. The people of Alabama will decide if they would rather have a child
molester or a democrat represent them in the United States Senate.
Many of the
people I know today are unaware of my Alabama origins. My accent is gone. I don’t
discuss the state unless I’m talking about Auburn football. Nevertheless, I
still care. Thanks to the internet, I still read the local newspapers. Thanks
to Facebook, I stay in touch with my high school friends. Most of them are good
people, kind and loving people. We don’t always agree, but not once have I felt
disrespected by any of them.
There are
times when local events in Alabama will have national impact. This is one of
those times. The republican party has had a difficult time passing any
legislation with their two-vote majority in the Senate. This election could
reduce that advantage to a single vote. Fox News and the rest of the
conservative media has been incredibly successful in demonizing democrats.
Their success has reduced any democrat to the equivalent of a first cousin to
the anti-Christ. For the vast majority of my home-state voters, voting for a
democrat will be a very difficult thing to do. It will require the most
difficult kind of courage, the courage to be different from your tribe,
friends, family, and neighbors. It will require many to vote for a non-republican
for the first time in their life.
Most of the people watching this unfold
outside of the state don’t believe that Alabamians will have that kind of
courage. They have a condescending attitude towards everything and everybody in
Alabama and a grudging respect only for the Auburn and Alabama football teams.
They believe that Alabamians are so dense and bigoted that they will believe
Roy Moore’s denials, or decide that it doesn’t matter as long as he is a
republican.
I think the
rest of the country is wrong. I believe that my friends, family, and high
school friends do believe that their children are more important than politics.
The nation will be watching.
More will probably be watching the Iron Bowl…
But this election is more important.
