When Moore is Less

Much to my horror, I believe that Roy Moore is going to win today’s election for an Alabama Senate seat.  It’s shameful and horrifying, disgraceful to the women whom he assaulted, and evidence that white supremacy,  mysogyny are routinely embraced in some corners of our nation.

I’ll wait until after the Moore victory to explain what went down.  Today, I’m going to focus my writing on how the Senate GOP will handle the Moore win.  I have a prediction.

I think that before he’s sworn in, Mitch McConnell will refer Moore to the Senate ethics committee who will ultimately rule that he’s not fit to serve.  The Senate will decline to swear Moore into the seat and instead ask the governor of Alabama, a Republican, to appoint a Senator to serve until an election can be held.

In this way, the GOP hopes to dodge the stain of Roy Moore while remaining damned sure that they hold the seat for their party when major votes on policy need to happen.  Keeping the seat red is essential to advancing the Republican agenda, especially the Tax Bill currently in conference committee.  That’s why Trump supported Moore; that’s why no other Republican leader with actual power had the courage to insist that Moore step down.  McConnell, Graham, and McCain declined to support Moore but that is not the same thing as working full-steam against him.  These leaders took a cowardly pass because they want to have power far more than they want anything else.

We’re going to mark this election as another moment when the Republican party demonstrated that their quest for power is far more important to them than their quest to lead; that the interests of the GOP comes before the nation interest.  This is a dangerous  thing for a political party and bad for the nation.  This is Donald Trump’s America.

Update, 12/12/17, 11:30 pm: Doug Jones won! Thanks to strong African-American voter turnout, Moore was defeated. As the returns were confirmed last night, I felt a powerful wave of emotion flow over me. This nation needed some good political news; I needed some good political news.  Thank you, Alabama!