By now everyone that pays any attention at all to politics has heard about the extremely detailed and well-sourced Washington Post reporting on Roy Moore’s outright pedophilia and other inappropriate (age of consent in Alabama is 16) with other teenagers. It’s important to note that none of the (now) women who have gone on the record sought out any journalist or news agency to tell their stories. It took dogged investigative journalism to follow up on whispered rumors of these particular skeleton’s in Roy Moore’s closet. In my mind that adds credibility to his accusers. They didn’t go looking for the limelight, and were even reluctant at first to open up about their experiences. Like others I think it’s safe to assume that had the Weinstein story not broken and grown the way it has, that without women increasingly being empowered to speak up this story would never have seen the light of day.
It’s also worth noting that the lady who was 14 when Moore committed his crimes with her that she was reluctant to do anything long before this because in her own words she’d been no angel back then — she knew how she’d be treated if she went public so her story remained closely held with a very few trusted people. When you think of how victims of well-known (even if only at a local or state level) have been treated by police and the courts when they’ve pressed charges I for one can understand why she kept quiet all these years. In my mind at least, her admissions add credibility to her story, details of which were confirmed independently.
I have little doubt that many in Alabama (and elsewhere) will have no problem refusing to read the actual reporting by the Washington Post — willfully remaining ignorant of how credible all four women’s stories about Moore are and repeated what Moore has said in his cowardly written statement about it being “fake news.”
Disgustingly, some have jumped beyond questioning whether the stories are true & straight into justification. One Official down there said something to the effect that Jesus’ stepdad was into teenagers. At least one other elected critter has said even if it was true he’ll still vote for Moore. Plenty more folks both elected and rank & file citizens of Alabama are and will continue to say similar and worse things. IOW, some of heavily Evangelical “Christian” Alabama is at least allowing that the charges are true, even the ones involving the then 14 year old which is a crime with no statute of limitations in Alabama. Keep in mind the state has just been through a scandal regarding a public figure that came from out of the blue and prior to tapes and emails was considered unthinkable behavior by such a “moral”, “righteous” & “upstanding” Alabama elected official. So plenty of the folks down there have to have asked themselves if their Governor Roy Bentley could engage in immoral behavior and no one had a clue is it possible that Roy Moore has done the same?
But it won’t matter come election day. Even if there were photos, tapes and other undeniable proof, even if Moore came right out in an imitation of Trump and said “Yes, I did all that and so what? At least I’m not a Democrat!” these “fine upstanding Christians” will still vote for him. No doubt many will do so out of rank hypocrisy. But I think the reason some elected officials in Alabama are providing some “cover” as I noted earlier in this diary is more crass and politically pragmatic. It goes like this:
- We have a month to go until the special election. We can (at least they hope) contain and/or drag this out at least until then.
- We HAVE to drag this out because by law it’s too late to replace Moore on the ballot.
- IF we can handle this through election day and get Moore a win we can take care of him (and the GOP in general) and convince him to resign before being seated. Because:
- WE HAVE A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR WHO TO APPOINT HIS REPLACEMENT! All we have to do is make sure a Democrat isn’t elected.
It’s crass, cynical and downright ugly and even immoral. Like Trump, Moore has a following in his state that will accept anything he says or does. They are a minority but they are still substantial in number. More people in Alabama will either believe Moore’s victims or at least think some of what they say is true and be bothered by it — just not enough to consider voting for a Democrat. Or even staying home on election day for that matter. But for the reasons I’ve stated the “good folks of Alabama” (way too many of them at least — there ARE genuinely good people who live there but you all know what I mean) will justify any combination of delay, deflection, ignoring the truth and of course “slut shaming” Moore’s victims (my guess is the death threats have already started as well) to get Moore elected. Then and only then will they deal with him.
I long ago ceased being a person of faith, but even back then I agreed with those who said if Jesus himself came back in our time and did the same ministry he wouldn’t be treated any better in our day and age than 2000 years ago. And if Jesus Christ was running as a Democrat (which he would be!) against even Roy Moore he’d lose. If he appeared in Alabama tomorrow and told the citizens of Alabama Moore was definitely headed to the fires of hell and that they should vote for the Democrat next month he’d never make it to the cross — he’d be torn to bits by every good ole boy & gal with an AK or AR type assault rifle emptying magazine after magazine into him.
The race has polled surprisingly close so far. And while we’ve been hoping for a turnout like we saw this past Tuesday to give us a surprise win, one more perversity in a situation literally born of perversity is that every bit of extra energy our side was going to have going into election day in Alabama next month will be matched & likely exceeded by panicked conservatives with the full force and weight of not just Fox News & right wing radio but elected officials in Alabama saying the kind of crap they have been saying.
There is no limit as to how low these folks will go to hold the line and get Moore elected next month even though most of them don’t want him in the Senate any more than even GOP Senators want him there. They know that once they can get Moore out of the way their Governor will replace him with another hard core conservative who can win the next special election.