The Alabama upset

[luzribeiro]

The unlikely has happened. Dem Doug Jones has now won Alabama. The upset trims GOP Senate Majority to 1, and is a major snub for Trump, who chose to back child molester Roy Moore (no surprise there, coming from a sex offender). I guess congrats are in order to Steve Bannon on pulling off the near impossible and handing Democrats a historical win in Alabama.

The losers from last night: Roy Moore, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, pedophilia, racism, homophobia and bigotry.

The winners from last night: Doug Jones, African-Americans, women, sex victims, decency, and diversity.

Meanwhile, in Trump Land, the disgusting attacks on women continue.

Comments

[mahnmut]

Trump: "Congrats, Doug Jones. I can't wait to work with you".

...Just kiddin'.

[fridi]

Trump gambled on a Bannon advice - and lost. That's delicious.

[policraticus]

Trump rejected Bannon's advice and campaigned against Moore in the primary. He supported Luther Strange. I find it odd that nobody seems to remember this.

Trump rather reluctantly campaigned for Moore, more or less saying "hold your nose, we don't want Jones." Not exactly a profile in courage, but probably the best compromise he could make once he decided to compromise. I think it is clear that the GOP is pretty relieved Moore lost.

If the Alabama GOP had nominated just about anyone else, up to and including a potted plant, they would have won by double digits.

[luzribeiro]

[oportet]

I think the last time we gave a major position to a democrat here it was the governor who promised us a lottery (it didn't happen, I wouldn't blame him for it though).

Question for Dems now is - is the RACIST! SEXIST! campaign strategy back and better than ever, or did it only work because Moore 'dated' kids? I guess we'll get our answer in the next year.

[luzribeiro]

And one more question: would it have worked so nicely for them if Moore hadn't done anything wrong?

[oportet]

Moore didn't do himself any favors, he played right into that strategy.

America was last great when we had slavery? Shit... even if you think that, have the foresight to know saying it out loud will come back to bite you on the ass (especially if you have political aspirations).

Would you date teens when you were in your thirties? There is only one answer to this - no. Not maybe, not probably not, not some long wordy clever response, not 'generally no' - just no. Even if it's true, say no. You're a Republican, taking questions from Hannity. He isn't going to try and trick you. It's a softball question. Almost impossible to fuck up. Almost.


On another note - I usually don't pay much attention to endorsements, even less so from celebrities and athletes - don't think I've ever believed one has made any difference - but Charles Barkley has some pull/influence here. With whites and blacks, conservatives and liberals. Whether he made a 21,000 vote difference or not is hard to say - but he made a difference.

[policraticus]

Even without the accusations of sexual misconduct, Roy Moore was a disgraceful nomination. You saw the same kind of thing in Delaware back in 2010 special election when the GOP nominated a manifestly unqualified person when there was a couple of stable, well known moderate available who would have, likely, run away with the seat. Instead, because it was an off year, special election, a smallm militant minority of disaffected conservatives decided that ideological purity trumped actual electability, dooming my birthplace to a generation of Democratic senators.

[oportet]

For someone who wants to push his opinions and beliefs on others - at least he was finally trying to get in the right branch of government for that.

A party can handle being split into two factions - both have been doing it for a while now.

Can one handle 3 though? Establishment conservatives, Tea Party Conservatives, and now... Bannon conservatives? Seems like divide and conquer...except Democrats aren't having to do any of the work - they can just sit back and watch.

[halialkers]

The thing that concerns me greatly is after the access Hollywood tape 53% of white women voted for Trump. Even after the Weinstein allegations and the open targeting of sexual assault and harassment in Western civilization as such 65% voted for Moore. So while women collectively benefit from Moore's defeat, he has an awful lot of useful idiots on his side who seem to vote as white women more than white women.

A woman voting for an admitted rapist or pedophile is the lamb voting for barbecue sauce for the wolf.

[mikeyxw]

Well, you've got to be 18 to vote, which means they're not in Mr. Moore's target group.

[mahnmut]

[jazzyjj]

Part of me saw this coming already, and part of me didn't. I mean, on the one hand I kinda expected Mr. Moore to win, given that we have a total bigot in office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I didn't want him to win, but I was in part expecting it. Yet on the other hand, I wanted Doug Jones or Luther Strange? to win just so that all this shit would be over. I'm glad Mr. Jones won out in the end. Speaking of him, I'm gonna try and tune into a Library of Congress broadcast this evening featuring him talking about the case of some KKK members who apparently set fire to an Alabama church some years ago. The blast killed 4 young girls and there's now some sort of documentary about it. I'm interested in what Mr. Jones has to say about being a former prosecutor. Btw, whatever happened to Mr. Strange anyway? He seems to have just fallen off the radar screen, or did I miss something?