In a positively stunning victory for humanity in general, Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore by a tight margin of one percent in a tightly contested race for the Alabama Senate seat on Tuesday. That seat was left vacant by Jeff Sessions when he left to do more racism as head of the Justice Department.
Last year, President Donald Trump won Alabama by 20 percent; real-life Keebler elf Sessions literally ran unopposed in 2014. This is like Kim Jong Un losing re-election in North Korea.
Moore, a ludicrously unfit candidate with a laundry list of disqualifying acts to his name, essentially ran away with the Republican nomination. He then proceeded to run his campaign with the backing of both “President” Trump and former White House strategist Steve Bannon. His support from the Republican establishment has been shaky at best — a condemnation from Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., certainly stung — but not as much as the kid molesting, and he didn’t campaign nearly as hard as Jones did.
That campaign in particular hinged on reaching black voters, for whom voting has been hard thanks to a combination of voter ID laws and a reduction in places to get those IDs.
What Jones did — aided by the national attention afforded to the widely publicized race — was get out the vote in spite of those roadblocks. It helped that his grandest achievement has been the prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan members who murdered four little girls in the Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing of 1963.
Roy Moore essentially saying: “slavery was nice, fam,” also helped.
More than anything else, this is a direct blow to the President and his Republican enablers. Trump came out hard for Roy Moore, apparently thinking that he could write off their mutual allegations off as #FakeNews.
Instead, in the shadow of #MeToo, Trump’s own sexual misadventures came back around to haunt him again. Since his unpopularity contributed to a loss in Alabama of all places, Republicans are going to think twice about protecting him.
For his part, Trump’s first tweet on the loss was conciliatory — but it clearly wasn't written by him.
Moore, for his part, is going in for a recount. This probably won’t help him. This might help Republicans ram through that tax bill if they don’t seat Jones right away. Doing that would probably give them enough donor money to continue existing, but also exacerbate the image problems the tax bill would have created.
Winners: Democrats, black voters, women, lawfulness and journalism.
Losers: Trump, Republicans, pedophilia, fake news and Ted Crockett.
For the last time this semester, this has been Peeling The Orange. The best lukewarm, partisan takes this side of the Hocking.
Happy Generic Secular/Religious Celebration of Family/God/Capitalism.
Logan Graham is a senior studying media arts with a focus in games and animation at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts on Roy Moore's loss? Let Logan know by emailing him at lg261813@ohio.edu.
