By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for senate in Alabama, was rocked by scandal this week, as a woman accused him of initiating sexual contact with her when she was only 14.
Moore was twice removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to follow the constitution, and he has pulled stunts such as showing a six-shooter at one of his rallies.
The new charges will unseat him, right?
Well, maybe and maybe not. There are some things that come into play beyond the candidate’s record of shenanigans. So far this past year, evangelical voters have shown that they will vote for a candidate known not to have a biblical lifestyle (Trump) as long as he stands for white supremacy. This outcome makes you a little worried that some large proportion of American white evangelicalism may be latently a form of white supremacy. In other words, values voters may not turn on the judge.
Here are some other reasons why:
1. Alabama’s voter ID law acts to suppress the votes of youth, elders and minorities. African-Americans in Alabama form 25% of the population, and they could ally with the white Democrats to forestall a Moore victory. But they are disproportionately disadvantaged by the ID laws.
2. Alabama is The least democratic state in the nation. It is 48th in accessibility of ballots.
3. Only 35% percent of Alabama voters see themselves as Democrats. If Republicans come out to vote, Judge Moore will prevail.
4. 86 percent of Alabama residents identify as Christian, and 49 percent are evangelical
5. 40% of white evangelical Christians supporting Moore say they do so out of party loyalty. While that is bad for Moore, that the party loyalty is holding is bad for his opponent.
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Related video:
Washington Post: Woman Alleges Sexual Encounter As A Minor With Roy Moore | MSNBC
The true religion has always been power.
And #6: It was said of congressmen & senators in safe Southern (in those days Democratic) districts, “The only way he’ll be voted out is to be caught in bed with a dead girl… or a live boy.”
As to your prediction, “…values voters may not turn on the judge.” So-called ‘values voters’ almost never turn on their own.
Excellent comments, Juan, thank you.
Breitbart’s editor came out and said….”Technically, only one of the three girls was under age. ”
Well, when you put it that way!
If the GOP didn’t wince at Trump, caught on tape bragging about molesting women, I doubt L A bama will be deterred from voting in da Judge.
When you say “Biblical life style” I wonder if you have actually read the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Packed with sex, form Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, Abraham and Sarah, Lot and his daughters in Sodom, and this is just the first 20 pages. Much of the sex involves older men with girls about the age of the ones that Moore is alleged to have gone after so it doesn’t surprise me at all.
This is a willful misreading. The OT actually can be pretty hardcore (no pun intended) about sex. If you read, say, Leviticus or Deuteronomy there are distinct prohibitions of sex outside of marriage. My students are also shocked to learn that a literalist interpretation means that they also have to lose that tattoo. The problem, though, with using the OT as an authority is that it came from many different hands at many different periods, so it can be all over the map.
The OT and NT both are often used as a cover for vice and all manner of despicable behavior and policies. But if there are three or four things that the OT is all about, I would say that number one is against apostasy from Yaweh (and clearly allows for genocide and ethnic cleansing on his behalf), number two is about treating the least among us with dignity and respect, number three is about treating strangers in your own land as your brothers and sisters.
Having read the text innumerable times at this point and taught it (in a university or college setting), I literally do not know what text evangelicals are looking at – my guess is that they don’t know what’s in the Bible, just that what they think might be in it is true.
In the end my reading of the Bible is that the Left has shunned it to their detriment – particularly the NT, which on any reading is supportive of social justice, not the social Darwinism of the GOP, and certainly not the pedophile wing of the GOP (see Moore, Trump on dating Ivanka, etc.)
Mary Chesnut, a Confederate diarist:
“like the patriarchs of old, our men live all in one house with their wives & their concubines, & the Mulattos one sees in every family exactly resemble the white children-& every lady tells you who is the father of all the Mulatto children in everybody’s household, but those in her own, she seems to think drop from the clouds or pretends so to think-.
My mother-in-law told me when I was first married not to send my female servants in the street on errands. They were there tempted, led astray-& then she said placidly, “So they told me when I came here-& I was very particular, but you see with what result.” Mr. Harris said it was so patriarchal. So it is-flocks & herds & slaves-& wife Leah does not suffice. Rachel must be added, if not married & all the time they seem to think themselves patterns-models of husbands & fathers.”
Roy Moore is a gun brandishing, hard-core Dominionist, noisy racist suffering from the early on-set of dementia. The legal age of consent in Alabama has been 16 years since 1920. Moore is a career lawman. He has NO excuse.
link to chnm.gmu.edu
And to those like Moore who consider a 14 year-old girl a prize rather than a crime, he’ll get their votes for sure.
If Moore wins, the State of Alabama will be exposed for what it is and has been – unsafe for young girls.
Moore’s popularity in Alabama is due to his espoused lifelong “Biblical life style.”
Mary was a virgin teen according to scriptures, Joseph was adult. “Biblical life style,” Trumpsters/Christian Nationalists in Alabama?
REPENT!
“Mary was a virgin teen according to scriptures”
Show us where the "scriptures" indicate Mary's age or
RENOUNCE!.
Since “scriptures” are a collection of MYTHOLOGY and supertstitions, the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, which is believed de fide , states that Mary was a virgin before, during and after giving birth for all her life.
I don’t make this stuff up. The church does.
Here’s a No. 6 to add to the list:
The white people of Alabama continue to cling to a racist, illiberal worldview that’s all about sticking it to the “other.” Unfortunately, they’re just fine with the Kochs, Scaifes, etc raking it in – just as long as the government can inflict pain on the pointy-headed intellectuals and those welfare-grubbing minorities.
Wish it weren’t so but the track record of white Alabama suggests otherwise.
Sixth reason: “dating” children is a badge of honor and a sign of virility for Republicans and fundamentalists everywhere. It will win this Moore guy more votes than it loses him.
Could you please do another story on “Five Reasons Why Roy Moore Could Lose”? I mean just for balance or as a kind of positive affirmation? Defeatism as a habit is not conducive to eventual victory, even though it may be realistic. Entertain the possibility of a Doug Jones win.
No, this won’t hurt him in Alabama. Baptist preachers have a reputation for a reason down there. Most of the flock would consider it an honor to have their teenage daughter hit on by such a God-fearing man as Roy Moore. They would consider the daughter at fault for being so unreasonable and uncooperative.
Roy Moore is straight out of a Tennesse Williams or William Faulkner novel. He could be the father of his daughter’s child and win hands down in the South.
“The white people of Alabama continue to cling to a racist, illiberal worldview that’s all about sticking it to the “other.” Unfortunately, they’re just fine with the Kochs, Scaifes, etc raking it in – just as long as the government can inflict pain on the pointy-headed intellectuals and those welfare-grubbing minorities. ”
This is pretty close but doesn’t really go far enough. You can get some idea of the idiocy Alabamans are willing to support if you listen to Anderson Cooper’s interview with Good Ol’ Boy Rep. Ed Henry. I fully expect Moore to be elected.
link to youtube.com
Instead of spending millions on ads urging Trump’s impeachment, which won’t happen as long as the Republicans control both houses of Congress, why don’t millionaires like Tom Steyer spend money trying to help disadvantaged minorities overcome discriminatory voter ID laws, by paying for them to obtain their birth certificates and overcoming other financial impediments to voting?
That is exactly what people with money and care should do and would’ve done in the past. Complaining is practically results nothing. Thank you for bringing this up.