In a little more than a day, barring a very close cliffhanger that requires a recount, we'll know whether Republican Roy Moore won or lost his bid for the vacant Alabama seat in the U.S. Senate.
There's been a lot of controversy about Moore - not just the accusations by several women than he sexually assaulted them years ago, but his fundamentalist religious beliefs, his racism, his love of guns, his lack of respect for the U.S. Constitution. Republican Party leaders, (after some false starts, as when Mitch McConnell said he believed Moore's accusers and thought Moore should back out of the race) have generally decided that these issues of character and suitability for the job don't matter in the least to them. The poster boy for that attitude is President Trump himself, who is making appeals to Alabama voters based solely on the fact that he (Moore) is a conservative Republican who will support him (Trump). Thus they arrive at the mantra of "letting the people of Alabama decide." Fair enough, but that would not mean that the GOP necessarily has to pour funds into Moore's campaign. It's all very cynical, but nothing is new in that.
Until lately, it has also seemed that those who really count, i.e. those selfsame voters of Alabama, are equally unconcerned about Moore's ethical, moral, and political weaknesses. After all, if they went for Trump, why wouldn't they vote for their very own home-grown Trump clone? And maybe there are some who seek to steal the title of "America's Most Backward State" from Mississippi, which has held it undisputed for so many decades.
Yet there are signs now, I read, that not all Alabamans are really so stupid or naïve. Many are expressing concern that Moore is not the right guy. Foremost among these is Alabama's other Senator, Richard C. Shelby, who has said he can't vote for Moore. And who's to say that Alabamans generally will take kindly to President Trump's blunt, arrogant and ethically challenged message to them: "Vote for Moore, I need him." It's these currents that have made tomorrow's special election more of a real horserace. We shall see.
Personally, I'm not sure the outcome matters greatly to most of us. But I do think his candidacy is a lose/lose for the Republican Party. A loss would be a serious blow to the GOP leadership and should cause them real concern about their fate in next year's mid-term Congressional elections. A win will put in power a man who cannot be anything but an embarrassment and a liability to Republicans nationally, with (again) obvious implications for the midterms. Win or lose, Moore may be the outlier that begins to unravel the Republican death grip on the South. So yes, please, let's let the voters decide, and see what happens.
