So, there it is.
Doug Jones wins the Senate seat in Alabama.
What Went Wrong:
Republicans backed Roy Moore in the wrong way. By denying the accusations, we looked like the deniers, because we were. The fact of the matter is the accusations are credible. As hard as it is to hear that, it is just true. Between multiple women coming out, the fact that they had solid evidence, and that Moore’s story has changed several times, it is just too much to say he’s innocent because everything points towards guilty. So when Republican leaders such as Trump and Steve Bannon backed Roy Moore, it painted the whole party as the deniers. The situation became much worse when those same believers attacked those who called Roy Moore out. We saw this when Bannon exploded on Mitt Romney, one of the most respected politicians in recent history: “Where were the Romneys during (Vietnam)?” Bannon said. “You want to talk about honor and integrity, brother, bring it. Bring it down here to Alabama.” This is pure Bannon, bashing Romney for not serving in the Vietnam war. There are two major errors made by the Republican Party in this entire fiasco; 1. They got into the business of denying sexual assault charges. This is a terrible label to associate with. Everyone can agree that sexual assault is bad, obviously, this is a bipartisan opinion. When you tend to dismiss accusations of a clearly evil action when there is a preponderance of evidence in favor of the accusations being true, you will lose over and over and over again. 2. Interparty fighting is bad no matter what. People like peace, and it’s hard to trust a party that can’t even keep peace in a group where everybody mostly agrees with each other. Let alone lead a country where only half the population agrees with your political viewpoints. This is simple.
What Republicans Should Have Done:
When stuck between a rock and a hard place, Republicans should have escalated the seriousness of the race. They should’ve said, Roy Moore may not be a great choice, but Doug Jones is worse because he is a baby killer. Escalating the seriousness in some weird way lowers people’s moral standards. Look at the presidential race, where Trump was accused by a plethora of women for sexual assault, and it really didn’t make a huge difference. The way to go in this race was the say, ‘Hey look, Moore may be guilty in these claims, but we can’t afford to give up the seat in the Senate to a baby-slayer. Please vote Moore so that we can uphold our party, and we will find a more suitable candidate in the next elections’. As soon as Alabama sees a good, legitimate, conservative candidate, they will elect him/her immediately.
But they didn’t. So here we are. An abortion loving, ultra-liberal is in a valuable Senate seat and the Republican party looks like they’re out of touch with the American people.
