A Familiar Stench Wafts Up from Alabama

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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19 Responses

  1. pillsy says:

    I hope Moore gets wiped out in the primary, as he deserves. This may mean a candidate who has a better chance to defeat Jones runs in his place, but I think it’s bad for everybody when a major party nominates someone as flagrantly unfit for the office he seeks as Roy Moore.

    That being said, if he wins the primary, a lot of the blame will fall on the activists and media figures who desperately wanted him to beat Jones and deciding to make all the evidence of his unfitness part of some insidious liberal plot.

    One of the problems with a strategy that depends on relentlessly deceiving your own supporters is that sometimes it works.Report

  2. LTL FTC says:

    We keep waiting for Moore’s *last* last stand, and it hasn’t been forthcoming, so let’s hope the primary marks the end of it.

    That said, what do you do about an awful guy whose main appeal seems to be that all the “wrong” people talk about how awful he is? It’s like he and Trump absorb the vitriol of the opposition and turn it into enthusiasm (and cash) by some sort of troll photosynthesis. Silence seems negligent, and would have probably consigned Doug Jones to the scrap heap of Great Dem Southern Hopes. But the current strategy doesn’t seem to ever slay the beast.Report

  3. North says:

    There is no way the Alabama Republican primary voters will be dumb enough to give him the nod again. Just no way in hell.Report

  4. Just wanted to say Yes to all of this. Moore is garbage masquerading as virtue.Report

  5. Saul Degraw says:

    I disagree with North and I think I disagree with you. I loathe Roy Moore and am glad Doug Jones won but his victory was a bit of a perfect storm of everything going right for him. Wikipedia confirmed my suspicion that Doug Jones had a within the margin of error victory. He won “673,896 votes (50.0%) to Moore’s 651,972 votes (48.3%) with 22,852 write-in votes (1.7%).” This is only because Alabama Republicans decided that Moore was their man. If Alabama Republicans were really tired of pompous bigot Roy Moore, we would be talking about Senator Luther Strange whenever mentioning the junior senator from Alabama.

    Can history repeat itself and Doug Jones gets reelected in 2020 because he went against Roy Moore? Yes but it is a coin toss especially during a Presidential election year when Trumpian voters are going to be out in full force. Plus Doug Jones breaks even in the approval/disapproval ratings at 45/44 respectively.Report

    • North in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      I dunno Saul. In the unlikely event the GOP primary voters nominate Moore again Jones could quite possibly win. He beat Moore before without an incumbency advantage and 45/44% approval for a Democratic Senator in Ala-fishing-bama? That’s a pretty good number. Finally, Presidency elections are typically higher turnout and higher turnout generally favors Dems.Report

      • Saul Degraw in reply to North says:

        If this were Texas or another purple-red leaning state, I’d say sure but this is Alabama and I think Jones was helped by being a special election too.Report

        • North in reply to Saul Degraw says:

          Yes and again, I repeat myself, I don’t think even Alabamans would nominate Moore again. I am pretty sure there’s at least one additional ambitious politician on the right in the heart of Dixie and a right leaning corpse should be able to beat proven loser Moore in the GOP primary there.Report

    • LeeEsq in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      Just enough Republicans decided to stay home rather than go out and vote. This allowed Jones to win by a squeaker. Its better than Democratic politicians usually do in Alabama but in a sane political body, the victory would not be that close.Report

  6. Chip Daniels says:

    Am I the only one who sees the irony of this post dropping n the same day as the Polish Joke one?

    Conservatives: “Why do liberals hold us in contempt?”

    Roy Moore: “Hold my beer.”Report