The Lessons Of Alabama
Yes… Alabaman’s 35% Voter Turnout decided who would be their next U.S. Senator. Think about that for a minute. Only 1 out of 3 registered voters …voted. The vote was almost evenly split, 48% to 49%. That means that 1 out of 6 people who were registered to vote, chose Alabama’s next U.S. Senator for all those who did not vote.
Factor in all those who were eligible but not registered, and it’s even more telling. The national average for special elections is usually much less than 35%.
So what happened in this heavily Republican State where Donald Trump won just 13 months ago by 62% to 38% over Hillary Clinton? Not only did he come out publicly for Moore, he did robo calls to Alabama Republicans laying out why Moore’s vote would be needed to carry out his campaign promises.
Here’s what happened
The Republican Party Establishment in the Washington D.C.”Swamp,” in their disdain for Roy Moore’s Christian and Constitutional conservatism, backed Luther Strange in the primary, as Senator Jeff Session’s appointed replacement.
Republicans put significant Senatorial and PAC money behind Strange but when Moore defeated both Strange and Mo Brooks, Senate leadership cut off financial support to Moore.
Emboldened by their win in Virginia and later, the Washington Post article, millions of dollars flowed into the Jones Campaign. Joe Biden called democrat activists to go to Alabama, to help Jones. Former President Barack Obama, defying the unspoken rule that former Presidents, as a matter of respect, remain out of politics, delivered hundreds of thousands of robo Calls to democrats in support of Jones.
The result? Moore’s Campaign was outspent 10 to 1 by democrat money, much of which came from outside the state to control the airwaves and further defame Roy Moore.
The refusal of Senate Republicans to support Moore is as much responsible for Moore’s loss as the Washington Post effort to separate Moore from his Evangelical base.
Democrat Presidential Candidates and celebrities went to Alabama to add momentum to the Jones Campaign. And more women came forward alleging that Moore tried to date them, one of which, said he sexually assaulted her, but got little media attention when she was later discredited. The damage had already been done.
When the influential Washington Post came forth with a story on November 9th alleging sexual misconduct by Moore nearly 40 years earlier, several Establishment Republican Senators, including McConnell, John McCain, Jeff Flake, and 25 others came out immediately – McConnell within the hour – in support of the Washington Post story, calling for Moore to drop out of the Race, expediently and foolishly aligning themselves with well known character assassination strategies.
Republican leadership in the Senate, in desperation, then touted a “write in” campaign but soon realized that would only aid Jones.
Alabama’s other Republican Senator, Shelby, however, didn’t get the message, or so disliked Moore that he came out a few days before the election saying he did not and would not vote for Moore, but instead wrote in the name of another Republican.
That statement, widely quoted by the media and the Jones campaign, gave cover for more moderate, nose holding, country club Republicans in the upscale suburbs of Birmingham and Montgomery not to vote or to write in someone else.
Republican Party leaders in D.C., fearful of the now open condemnation of elected officials being exposed for sexual misconduct, did not want to be seen as supporting Roy Moore, whom they chose to believe was guilty of the allegations.
So what is to be learned from this American political charade?
1. He who turns out enough votes, wins!
2. It pays to smear someone if it helps you win.
3. If you need money to smack down your opponent, do something to raise it! And then…use it to destroy them!
4. Money ‘talks’, at least through incessant radio ads, talk shows, print media, and TV.
- Stand Up Republic, a social welfare organization founded by 2016 independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin and his running mate Mindy Finn, made a $500,000 ad buy calling on conservatives to reject Moore. The ads reference the sexual misconduct and assault allegations against Moore, which he has denied. In one ad, a Republican voter says that he cannot vote for Moore because he “makes Republicans and us Christians look bad.” The second features clips of girls looking into the camera as the narrator asks, “What if she was your little girl? Your daughter? Your sister? What if she was 16 years old, or 15, or even 14? Would you let a 32-year-old man be alone with her? Date her? Undress her? Touch her? Have her touch him? That’s what Roy Moore did. He called it dating. We call it unacceptable. That’s why we can’t support Roy Moore.” N.B. From ‘allege’ to ‘did!”
- $500,000 buys a lot of ads, ads that if heard enough times lead people to believe that the ‘allegations’ alone mean he did all of this, driving home the point by personalizing it with you.
5. Alleging a candidate for public office has engaged in sexual or moral misconduct, can be a successful weapon to annihilate someone’s character and electability. So expect to see more of this in 2018 and beyond from the amoral hypocrisy of the left.
6. You don’t have to prove anything anymore, just ‘allege’, and the media will do the rest to establish your opponent’s guilt in the ‘court of public opinion’ and then at the ballot box. So why would good people want to run for anything?
7. The Republican Party establishment is averse to supporting strong conservatives for public office who have a mind, values, and convictions, of their own. The Republican establishment didn’t want Donald Trump. He threatened to drain the ‘swamp‘ of which they are one of the two main vested interests in keeping the ‘swamp‘ as it is. And they didn’t want Roy Moore, who would stand with Trump, so they did everything they could to persuade Alabamans not to vote for him also. How foolish. Makes one think that the Republican Party in “the swamp” would like to see him fail.
8. When the Republican Party leadership in D.C. chooses to believe allegations of a woman, thrice married, who has been bankrupt three times, is a “customer service representative for a payday loan business” who says, “There is no one here (in Madsden, Alabama) that doesn’t know that I’m not an angel,” over a 35 year public servant who is married to the same woman for over 30 years and has a distinguished and courageous record of defending our traditional values in support of the Constitution, something stinks at the “Swamp” and the stench can be traced right back to Mitch McConnell and his Republican Establishment friends.
9. When Republican voters who voted for Trump will not stand for their pro-life, pro-family, smaller government values in the face of adverse publicity and politically charged rhetoric nor work to get their voters out to maintain control of the U.S. Senate, you have to question their commitment to what they say they stand for, and whether they will stand in the 2018 elections.
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