Alabama

Winners and Losers

Well, it looks like the Democrat won in Alabama.  Doug Jones received 671,151 votes to Roy Moore’s 650,436 votes.  Jones won 50.0% to 48.4%.

Historic.  Huge. Alabama last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1992 (that’s 25 years ago).  Some people are saying that reason prevailed.  The anti-Constitution, pedophilic, homophobic, anti-Semitic (but his lawyer, probably a best friend, eh?  is a Jew), slavery apologist and obfuscator, child molester endorsed by Trump, Bannon, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party and twice removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for misconduct guy lost.

Roy Moore lost an election where the turnout was also historic.  Total ballots cast were 1.35 million from an electorate of 3.3 million.  Yes, that’s right. A 40.46% turnout is considered huge.  The Alabama Secretary of State had predicted a 25% voter turnout.  Moore won the Republican primary over challenger Luther Strange in a vote that only saw a 15% turnout.  After the candidates raised and spent close to $20 million and no one knows yet how much got spent as soft money, and the national attention, and the controversy, and the importance of this election, only 40% of Alabamans could be bothered to vote, and that is considered a surprisingly high turnout.

“We” won, but we lost.  Even with all that was on the line for our country, only 40% showed up.

Women voted for Jones 57% to 43%, but black women voted 98% for Jones, so white women went 63% to 37% for Moore. And the women look like crazy liberals compared to men.  72% of white men voted for Moore while only 26% voted for Jones (2% write-in votes, which is significant in a race this close).

Overall, only 32% of white voters choose Jones.  97% of those who voted for Moore said they did so to express support for Trump (Washington Post exit poll).  That sort of answers the question as to what is the problem with white people in Alabama.  But what about white women?  Don’t they have daughters in Alabama?  According to the Post poll, “76% of voters said that the allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore were ‘not a factor at all’ in their decision.”

If true, what that says is that party triumphs over ethics, over morality, over our Constitution, and our values.  If true, we are all losers.  We have succumbed to a tribalism that has only strife, misery and ugliness as an end-product.

The pundits say this vote provides indications that things do not bode well for the Republicans in 2018.  I hope so.  Not because I love the Democrats so much because I don’t.  But I do want the ray of hope that we can win over the “party uber alles” approach of the past few years.  We need to elect people of integrity and moral fiber.  People willing to forgo party and vote conscience.  People dedicated to “do the right thing” regardless of which party presents the idea. People who believe “service” means getting things done that benefit the whole country.

Yup.  I am a goddamn idealist.  Who knew?  Surprises the shit out of even me.