By Josh Moon
Alabama Political Reporter
It’s time that we had a little talk about Roy Moore.
Messages came pouring in to me on social media Tuesday evening following the release of a Fox News poll that showed Moore in a statistical tie with Democratic challenger Doug Jones.
There was great glee among the more progressive types, and among many of my more moderate conservative friends.
To all of you: Shut up.
A statistical tie is nothing to be proud of for two reasons.
First, let’s be honest, deep down, we all know that Moore is leading, no matter what the numbers in this one poll say.
And second, even if the numbers are dead solid, so what?
Ooooh. You mean we have a chance of not electing a crazy person?
Well, start planning the parade.
This is what it’s come to Alabama – cheering for the mere possibility that we won’t elect a thoroughly deplorable person to be one of 100 people leading this country.
A man who has advocated for killing gay people. A man who has broken his oath of office twice. A man who, as a judge, defied the laws of this country and state. A man who has made a living off of the gullible people who have bought his holier-than-them shtick.
It’s pathetic.
It’s pathetic that Republican men and women – many who have in the past condemned Moore’s hateful speech and his hateful acts – are now tossing their support to him out of nothing more than party loyalty.
How far does that go, exactly – party loyalty? Is there a sin that party loyalty doesn’t excuse just long enough to mark a ballot?
Because there’s no excuse for electing Roy Moore.
Zero.
Standing opposite him is a good candidate. A tough-on-crime, well educated, smart, well spoken, personable, middle class guy.
He’ll vote to keep the regular guy’s taxes down and his health care affordable. He’d actually support legislation that would help the majority of this state’s citizens.
And he wouldn’t be on TV every other day, like some sort of wayward revival preacher, spewing hateful, embarrassing rhetoric about gay people or minorities.
It also helps that Doug Jones apparently knows how to properly fill out a statement of economic interest and all of the appropriate campaign finance forms.
But despite all of that, there’s Roy Moore standing in a statistical tie with Doug Jones.
And we’re cheering?
It’s enough to make my stomach turn – to think that somehow the people of this state might find these two men equal.
Even if you strip away all of Moore’s purposeful insanity – and that’s quite the strip job – you’re still left with a bad option. Because underneath the shock-politician shell, there’s a conservative lawmaker whose ideas haven’t made a single middle-class citizen’s life better. Ever.
If you doubt that, look around you.
Alabama lives and dies on the conservative governance that Moore would take to D.C.
And Alabama mostly dies on it.
The same goes for the hate, particularly the kind Moore wallows around in constantly – the kind that best serves you politically at the expense of innocent, good citizens.
So, no, sorry, it’s not a day for celebration when we learn that half of the state’s voters might not vote for the hateful bigot who was kicked off the Supreme Court twice for refusing to follow the law.
If it ever is, God help us.
