George F. Will Offers a Ringing Endorsement of Alabama Democrat Doug Jones
Whoa. Here we have an old fashioned Republican not only decrying the likes of Trump and Moore, but actually ENDORSING A DEMOCRAT.
This is a beautiful editorial actually, which not only describes the qualifications of Jones, who is clearly worthy of the Senate, but also calls into question the “vanity about virtue” of the white Evangelical Right.
Vanity about virtue — how well stated! — and yes — it’s true isn’t it! It’s all too easy to preach fire and brimstone about gay people and attack NFL protesters while completely ignoring the real issues that bedevil our country: inequality; the stubbornness of Jim Crow, especially in the South; misogyny; economic injustice. And coming from an utter hypocrite to boot —
An excerpt from his piece:
Evangelical Christians who embrace Moore are serving the public good by making ridiculous their pose as uniquely moral Americans, and by revealing their leaders to be especially grotesque specimens of the vanity — vanity about virtue — that is curdling politics. Another public benefit from the Moore spectacle is the embarrassment of national Republicans. Their party having made the star of the “Access Hollywood” tape president, they now are horrified that Moore might become 1 percent of the Senate. Actually, this scofflaw, twice removed from Alabama’s Supreme Court, once for disobeying a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is a suitable sidekick for the president who pardoned Joe Arpaio, Arizona’s criminal former sheriff. Even after Donald Trump conceded that Barack Obama was born in United States, Moore continued rejecting such squishiness.
He concludes,
Nothing about Moore’s political, financial or glandular history will shake his base, unless the credible accusations of serial pursuit of underage girls are suddenly overshadowed by something his voters consider serious, such as taking sides in the Alabama-Auburn game. Jones’s hopes rest with traditional white Democrats (scarce), Republicans capable of chagrin (scarcer), and African Americans. They are 27 percent of this state in which “civil rights tourism” (the 16th Street church, Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Montgomery church, and more) is economically important.
This month, Virginia’s African Americans turned out for Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, a Democrat who, like Jones, invited voters to take a walk on the mild side. Approximately a quarter of Alabamans live in the metropolitan area of Birmingham, which has had an African American mayor since 1979. National Democrats are helping Jones, but delicately. They rashly treated a Georgia special congressional election as a referendum on the president and want to avoid that mistake in a state Trump carried by 28 points.
Turnout for the August Republican primary and the September runoff was about 18 and 14 percent, respectively. Next month’s election will occur during many distractions, midway between Thanksgiving and Christmas and, more important, 10 days after Armageddon — the SEC championship game. Perhaps an Alabama victory would make the state hanker for a senator worthy of its football team. If so: Roll Tide.
All I can say is, “Thank you George Will.”
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