No, Alabama wasn’t a national election, and no, this is not all about us, or America as a whole. It was an Alabama election, and it speaks about Alabama more than anything else.
After Doug Jones’s victory last night in Alabama’s Senate election, the talking heads are patting themselves on the back so hard they’re going hurting themselves.
It was not so much a rejection of the Trump agenda as it was a rejection of the whole Trumpian mode of politics….
— As Goes Moore, So Goes Trumpism, Ross Douthat, Dec. 13, 2017, New York Times
No, it wasn’t all about us. It was a difficult rejection of Roy Moore.
And the Jones victory is about a rising tide of Americans who won’t swallow the bilge President Trump is pushing.
— Doug Jones’s victory should make Trump nervous, , Dec. 13, 2017, Washington Post
Naa. As much as the idea pains me, Alabama loves Trump overwhelmingly. Trump’s approval ratings are insanely high (my personal interpretation, there). Alabama voters loved him before this election, and they still love Trump now.
But this was a local election. National media always bollix that up. Trump first pushed Luther Strange, but everyone could see Trump didn’t really care. He openly undercut Strange before the primary had started, for god’s sake, just in case someone wasn’t sure of Trump’s feelings. Strange didn’t lose his primary in spite of Trump lukewarm support, he lost because he was a seriously compromised candidate who should probably have been stripped from office for public corruption. Look in Alabama Isn’t New; the GOP is Rotting for more detail. Roy Moore may have been goon, but at least he wasn’t already bought and paid for.
In the Alabama general election, Trump pushed for Roy Moore, but again, only halfheartedly. Part of that was the nagging child molester thing. Hopefully. Part was because Moore’s sins pulled attention back to Trumps’ own sexual predation. Maybe most importantly, Trump and Moore were never BFFs. I’m not sure Trump can do ‘friends’. He never truly supports anyone other than The Donald. Trump remains a terrible patron, likely to pull his support at any imagined risk. “I suppose, for now” is never a ringing endorsement.
That Alabama’s voters chose Doug Jones for the United States Senate is cause for celebration. A triumph for decency and common sense in a state that seemed for a time at risk of abandoning both, Mr. Jones’s win narrows the Republicans’ Senate majority and delivers a deeply deserved rebuke to President Trump. It is hard to get too intoxicated by a slim victory over an atrocious candidate, a suspected sexual abuser with bigoted politics, but Alabama, the Senate and the nation will be a whole lot better off with Mr. Jones than with Roy Moore.
— Roy Moore Loses, Sanity Reigns, New York Times Editorial Board, Dec. 13, 2017
Again, only sorta. I agree that we’ll be much, much better as a nation with Jones than Moore, but that’s not why Jones won. And I don’t see it as a rebuke to Trump.
It doesn’t take much digging to find that Alabama voters were holding their noses for Doug Jones. Why? Jones admitted being pro-choice. He has lots of other good and strong attributes, but Republicans seized on that one litmus test issue, and successfully caricatured Jones as a pro-abortion Democrat stooge. Democrats seemed helpless in response. (What is it with Democrats, anyway?) Alabama is a deeply Evangelical state, and being pro-choice would have been a death sentence for Jones in any other election. So no, Alabama didn’t vote for Jones because they saw him as a moral candidate. They just couldn’t stomach Roy Moore.
The defeat of Republican Roy Moore in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race by Democrat Doug Jones was a stunning rebuke to the GOP’s anti-establishment wing led by Steve Bannon and a major political embarrassment for President Donald Trump.
— Moore’s Defeat in Alabama Deals Trump a Rebuke Ahead of 2018 Races, Steven T. Dennis,
Yeah, no. Watch the tapes. During the campaign events with Bannon, crowds went into a deranged frenzy whenever Bannon talked. Moore was a big letdown, at least by the sound levels. Nor is this a general victory. If we listen to the exit polls, Moore won 91 percent of the Alabama Republican vote. The Republican party isn’t letting go at all.
For all the national attention and the huge money dumps, this was not all about us. It was a local election, balancing local issues.
There is another bright side. The Bannonites and the establishment GOP are going at each other hammer and tongs right now, seeing who they can stick with the blame. So, our nation is double enhanced by the Jones victory.
Recent Comments