As I write, Democratic candidate Doug Jones has just taken the stage to declare himself the winner of the Alabama Senate race, the one in which Roy Moore became more infamous than famous, and better known for the worst kind of reasons.
The final counts are not in, and I suppose there could be a turnaround at the last moment, but it doesn’t look like it. It looks like Republicans lost the seat. Hillary Clinton is already crowing that this is a sign of more Democratic victories to come.
Maybe.
Too soon to tell.
Meanwhile, what to make of it all? Jones has declared that “This entire race has been about dignity and respect. This campaign has been about the rule of law.” And I am not certain that is a good description. It seemed to me what the campaign turned into was a referendum on whether voting for a man accused of sexual assault and statutory rape was a good idea.
There were also Republicans thankful that Moore lost. “Decency wins” is what Senator Jeff Flake tweeted; “Suck it, Bannon,” is Meghan McCain’s eloquent taunt. (Steve Bannon had backed Moore.) Reason’s Scott Shackford probably put it best, writing that “Polls have closed in Alabama as voters there decide between controversial former judge Roy Moore and … um … not Roy Moore.”
The modern American political process is now firmly a matter of reiterating this pattern: voting against more than for.
A horrible development? Well, there sure is a lot more to be against in American politics, than for.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Another Election “Against””
Alabama doesn’t bother me. Just makes 1 more seat of gridlock in an already divided, useless Congress. That’s the sad thing.
There are no winners here. Had Judge Moore pulled it off, there would’ve been a stink on him. There would be a hostile press fanning the flames of discontent. Had Moore even survived since there were rumblings that an ethics committee (ha – ha ethics in Congress) would boot him anyway.
And so our “democracy” moves forward.
Two winners here:
1. The Swamp that is Washington, D.C.
2. The Politics of Personal Destruction
There were many reasons to vote against Roy Moore but this victory may prove Pyrrhic, for the Washington Post and for Mitch McConnell. Questionable journalism (Remember when private lives were unrelated to politics? Only if the candidate is a Democrat, it seems.) and shoddy politics (McConnell would have been better off if he had left the ENTIRE decision up to Alabama voters, but he just HAD to involve himself in a primary race.) Time will tell.
It seems to me that when the left wins, they’re insufferable asses and when the left loses (Hillary Clinton for example) they’re insufferable asses.