ALABAMA REDEEMED (barely)

Senator-elect Doug Jones

Late last night it was remarked that for the first time in 175 years, the people of the state of Alabama came to a fork in the road and chose the correct path. The fact that they inexplicably came within one-or-two percentage points of choosing a child predator to represent them in Washington as their senator is disturbing to be sure, but at least we may all sleep a little easier tonight, content in the knowledge that this nerve-wracking campaign is over....or is it? Before the clock struck midnight, Roy Moore told a gathering of the demented faithful that the absentee ballots of the military had yet to be counted. Last I checked, the silly bastard had yet to concede.

The very fact so huge a percentage of the voters of that state were perfectly at ease with the overt racism of Roy Moore is as troubling as it is amusing. Thank God for the African Americans of dear ol' Alabamy. They know they have an ally in Doug Jones, the man who sent to prison the surviving conspirators of the September 1963 church bombing in Birmingham that killed four little girls - decades after the crime was committed. Choosing between Doug and some senile old knucklehead who has stated that America was a better place when human beings were held as slaves must have been a fairly easy proposition, I suppose.

Still, it is disturbing to contemplate the fact that, since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act two-and-a-half years ago, about a hundred-thousand Alabamans with dark skin were rendered ineligible to cast their precious ballots. What does that tell you about America in the twenty-first century?

 

I can't help but wonder if serial sexual predators in the state of Alabama have a bit more of a spring in their step this morning knowing that the voters there yesterday came within a whisker of sending one of their own to Washington. While I cannot say for certain that this is indeed the case, I would caution any Alabaman with young children to keep a closer eye on them in the weeks and months to come. Regardless of whether or not you voted for Roy Moore on December 12, 2017, your fellow citizens all-but-validated pedophilia. Ain't that something? If you did vote for Roy, did this possibility even register in your mind when you cast your vote? This is a question that intrigues me.

I come from the Hudson Valley, sixty miles north of Manhattan. Having lived all over America, I don’t think I could ever again move away from here - at least not permanently. Although there are counties in northern and western New York state that can be described as somewhat “”backwards” (there were an awful lot of “Trump for President” signs in the region during the 2016 campaign) my neck of the woods is a fairly enlightened place when compared to a lot of other parts of this doomed republic. Where I come from, someone as utterly unhinged and as damaged as Roy Moore could not even have received the GOP nomination. Even conservative Republicans have a bit more sense than that - at least here in New York. I can’t remember in my lifetime when someone as overtly racist as Roy Moore was even nominated by either of the two political parties in these parts. Too many people in Alabama would rather elect a child molester than a moderately liberal Democrat. What the hell is the mater with them?

Had Roy Moore and Doug Jones run against each other in New York state, we wouldn't be talking about one-or-two percentage points the morning after. It would have been a landslide.

It was a joy to witness, via television, the racist Breitbart ringmaster, Steve Bannon, fleeing Alabama last night in complete humiliation. He was so certain that his boy Roy had this thing wrapped up tight - and it blew up in his clueless, haggard face.  Donald Trump is also a bit worst for the wear on this fine December morn. The fact that his candidate was defeated in a state as right wing as Alabama does not bode well for him. In fact (and I can't even believe that I’m saying this) I’m staring to feel a bit sorry for the guy. His presidency is in ruins - and there is nothing he can do to stop the implosion. There is no doubt (in my mind at least) that between now and Christmas he’ll try to end the investigation into his campaign’s collusion with a hostile foreign power by firing Robert Mueller. When that happens, it will make Dick Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre look like Sunday Afternoon in the Park. Be sure to keep your umbrellas close by. The shit storm is about to commence.

These are interesting times.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Kindly forgive the ten day lapse between the last piece and this one. I've been a tad under the weather. You know how it is.