What Does the Left Get Out of the Roy Moore Fiasco?

Ladies and gents, I bring to you the very obvious outcome of the left's efforts in handing the Ray Moore story.

The issue for the left is not whether Moore is guilty or innocent.

Not whether they will win or lose that one seat (that's not under anyone's direct control).

Not whether, he'll keep on fighting or leave the race. All those are factors, not central issues.

The central issue here is dividing and ridiculing the Republican party, having Republicans go at one and other, and discrediting themselves in a wide variety of ways.

So far, the plan is succeeding.

When You Think You Are Strong, When In Fact, You're Just SHort-Sighted

Democrats are ALWAYS trying to do hit jobs. That's called opposition research. Sometimes it bears out and sometimes it's pure fabrication. That's nasty, but it's politics so there is no excuse not to be prepared and not do your own job in looking at where your candidate might get hit.

And do all of you honestly believe that the Republicans woudn't do oppo research on a candidate and try to bring it up at a convenient time if they could? The better question is why are they so terrible at doing that. Is it laziness? Weakness? Corruption? Lack of access to quality operatives? I don't know. What I do firmly believe that all the people who are more than willing to overlook whatever Roy Moore did just because the Democrats brought it out of the closet at the last minute would do the same thing to the other side in the heartbeat, if only they could. But they can't, so they are doing their party a disservice twice: first, by talking the talk without walking the walk, and second, by failing to distance themselves from known liabilities and therefore opening themselves up to further attacks of the same kind.

I won't be surprised if more of this doesn't come out in a week or two, only much worse and with some awful evidence that will be hard to dispute.

Let's face it, 40 years ago, people did not keep good records. They weren't in the habit of instagramming their every move. There was no Instagram. 20 years from now? The young candidates running in local elections will be inundated with blackmail and revelations. And if we are still stuck in the mindset from 40 years ago 20 years from now, there won't be any elections worth winning left.

Roy Moore's Defense Starts With Roy Moore

1. Roy Moore failed to publicly and unequivocally deny all allegations, including but not limited to accusations of attempted sexual assault, being banned from the mall for being too creepy even for that time and place, and the yearbook.

2. If in doubt, see one. I see no reason to defend someone who refuses to defend himself. Why are you killing yourselves and making yourselves look ridiculous over someone who refuses to simply state "There is not one word of truth in any of this"?

Roy Moore is Not The Hill Worth Dying On

Let me put it this way, whatever you think of cultural norms in Alabama 40 years ago, the bulk of the evidence, Moore's guilt or innocences, who is behind the current revelations, and whether or not it's appropriate to run such candidates, one thing is clear to me:

Moore is not entitled to support of anyone except the people who voted for him. No politician from another jurisdiction "has" to continue supporting somebody with a cloud of attempted sexual assault allegations hanging over his head. And not one conservative must act against his conscience and show support to somebody from another state just to virtue signal their opposition to dirty trickery by the Democrats. And if the v oters in Alabama decide that this guy deserves to be in the Senate, so be it. But he is not entitled to a single colleague's support there if they in good conscience believe that he is a liar and a pervert.

And if he continues tarnishing the brand of the Republican Party, the people who are vigorously supporting him now will have that to content with. If the Party continues to fail to recruit new people because GOP becomes associated with hypocrisy, complete lack of accountability, and lack of good judgment, Republicans will have only themselves to blame. There are many battles to fight against the left. Some Republicans were willing to hang themselves on the hill that was Michael Flynn. We all know how that turned out. Sometimes it's just not worth it, morally or practically. I am not willing to tie my personal reputation to Roy MOore, whom I didn't actually support to begin with, except in a very technical sense as the voters' choice for the general election in Alabama. And the PR winner in this battle is going to be the left anyway. By all means, expose dirty trickery wherever you see it - but only after making sure that you yourself are not going down with the people you are exposing.

Just The Facts, Ma'am

I don't see anyone debating or discrediting the testimony that Moore was banned from the mall in his town for being creepy. Either that is an objective fact, independent of any character witnesses, or it's not. Either he was banned or he wasn't. Should be easy enough to figure out for those who are willing to do so, instead of going in circles debating who would have or should have known what.

Why You Don't Have To Support Moore to Be a Real Conservative

It's astounding to see the very same people (literally) who expressed horror at Donald Trump's character last year, and were distressed that the Republicans chose him as their nominee in the primaries, and were shocked that the Evangelicals and other religious groups would endorse someone like that, the same people who refused to give him full-hearted support even after the nomination... suddenly defend Roy Moore with their dying breath AS IF THERE IS NO CAUSE FOR CONCERN whatsoever.

Now, don't get me wrong. I've been struggling with this issue myself since the story broke out. Unlike many of Moore's supporters, I never liked the man to begin with, but since this is the candidate Alabama voters have chosen, I was hoping, and could certainly understand, that Moore's conservative colleagues in the Senate would try to make the best of the situation, buddy up with him, and get him to vote for the right things and avoid saying and doing harmful things as much as possible. I would not be happy that he was there at all, but I could live with that outcome. I cannot live with a liar, who makes fools of his own constituents, and who appears to be completely non-chalant about the seriousness of the accusations by his detractors. I will be significantly less diplomatic about it than some people I very much respect were and say as following: sure, the timing MAY very well be entirely political and disruptive. But that does not justify Moore's crimes, if he is guilty of them, and it's certainly does not justify the lying.

And it absolutely does not justify those "conservatives" who are willing to put aside all moral judgment and support Moore EVEN if it turns out that all claims are true and he is indeed a pedophile and a liar. To say that I'm disappointed, not so much in the original Trump supporters, but in the people who did consider character an important issue to selecting a candidate and who now completely destroyed their credibility by trying to find excuses for the inexcusable, is not to say anything. I've already seen a fair number sliding down that slippery slope into blatantly favoring evil, not even the lesser evil, just evil, so long as it's "their" kind of evil, and this further degradation just adds an additional layer of disgust on top of it all. Now, I get if people are genuinely struggling with this issue. I myself expressed grave concerns about the high likelihood of defamation of character, conveniently launched by political operatives and picked up by those who simply dislike Moore.

For that reason, I have a great deal of respect for Steve Deace, who, in a very earnest statement, explained why he himself is struggling with this issue. I myself was not willing to "buy into" (as I was accused of doing) the political machinery behind the latest election-time shenanigans. I wanted to see what would happen next. I was sorely disappointed by Roy Moore's own actions, his loss of credibility on Hannity, and by the bandwagon of apologists, who do not care about truth, righteousness, or even legality of his actions, so long as he "wins" and they get to score points against the left. Once again, my advice to the conservatives: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You might want to reconsider your own choices that keep leading you towards increasingly more impeachable candidates. There is no shortage of staunch conservatives without this kind of baggage. How about, instead of falling for the most shrill, grandiose megalomaniacs that you can find, supporting people with no dark secrets of the sexual crime variety, who will do their job earnestly, and who will not blatantly lie to you about the most basic facts of the situation?

I am further disgusted by the accusations of bad faith and being a tool of the left that are being launched at me now that after a time of carefully monitoring the situation and struggling with various angles of it, i have come to a personal choice that Moore is more likely guilty than not, and that he is almost certainly lying about at least some aspects of this situation. I took heat from the left when I cautioned against jumping at easy political bait and at the gravity of undermining someone's reputation. I am equally willing to take the heat now, because truth to me, matters a lot more than opinions of people on the Internet. I am not willing to make compromises with my own conscience and to support someone who engages in this level of deceit and is either covering up a crime, or is so narcissistic, that even for the sake of clearing his name and helping his party dig itself out of the moral morass, will continue covering up, lying, and equivocating.

I pray and wholeheartedly hope that Moore turns out to be entirely innocent of the heinous accusations against him. However, he disgraced himself on Hannity, and he disgraced himself further by refusing to clear his name and by not calling out to his supporters and cautioning them against their willingness to support criminals. That would have been the right thing to do in this situation. Unlike the many "conservatives" I have encountered, I remain fully confident that the State of Alabama, has, in fact, a number of viable, conservative candidates, who are neither pedophiles nor liars or equivocators, and who would make fine candidates in the event Roy Moore wisely decides to spare us all additional embarrassment and to withdraw. He is now a complete liability to the party, and the best he can do is come clear, apologize, and take his leave. If he stays in the race, somehow manages to win the election (which I doubt), and takes the Senate seat, he will have not only disgraced that institution, but he will be a political loss for conservatives. His vote will be tainted, and he will end up as disservice to his own state.

Bannon's schtick

Bannon's schtick is not about supporting stronger, more conservative candidates against RINOs. It's about finding the most shrill, rootless candidates he can possibly dredge up and then trolling - that's right, trolling - the entire party into supporting these naked Emperors for fear that they will otherwise themselves be deemed RINOs. It's very obvious what's going on here, folks. Use your common sense. If you want to find better candidates, by all means do so. Just don't let Bannon be in charge of that. He's already stiffed you with Roy Moore. Do you really want to see more of the same?

A Word or Two on Roy Moore And Reputational Politics

Regarding the Roy Moore controversy, the circumstances and motivations around the accuser's allegations should be impeachable no matter who the accused is, an d if the alleged crime or grievance is of sexual nature, it is no different than any other set of circumstances. The fact that these accusations popped up in the heat of an election season is relevant. The fact that WaPo appears to contradict itself by claiming that all 4 alleged victims knew nothing of each other and yet somehow managed to find them all through one of them is relevant.

The circumstances around one of the accused leads credence to the high likelihood that politics played at least a part in in this accusation at this time. I urge you to read up about this individual, the one who is a mother of a troubled son, and judge for yourself. The court of public opinion should be no different than the court of law in judging all relevant factors before making a determination as to the guilt or innocence of the individual. I find Roy Moore a highly dislikable character, and I deplore the fact that he has been drafted to run, much less the fact that he was chosen over the eminently more qualified Mo Brooks by the people of Alabama as their nominee. I think it is indicative of very poor judgment on many people's part. However, none of the issues I have with him are a crime. To the extent that he is being accused of a crime of sexual nature, his comments about homosexuals, his actions as a judge, and everything else you could very reasonably criticize is completely irrelevant.

However, precisely because this candidate is so troubled by so many OTHER real, proven character issues it is very easy to pile on to him and make people who are already prone to dislike him believe that he is guilty of every accusation simple because he is an unpleasant man of low character in other respects. And we have seen it done before by REpublicans and Democrats alike to each other, as well as to their own last year, and on previous occasions. For that reason, I tend to be MORE skeptical of such accusations with unlikable, icky, annoying people like Moore than with popular seemingly pleasant actors or less controversial politicians. And I think no politician should EVER be forced to step down on the basis of allegation by one or even several people with a 40-year old history with no other apparent evidence and no admission from the politician himself. IF Moore were to admit to such actions or if information emerges showing these allegations to be true, I'll be the first to agree that his place is likely in prison rather than in the Senate. (Let's not kid ourselves: this is not about impropriety, adultery, fornication, or other personal flaws in judgment. Moore is being accused of a sex crimes against minors. If proven to be true, he should have a criminal investigation launched against him, never mind the end of his campaign).

If we let every allegation sprung up against a controversial politician in the middle of the election be grounds for immediate withdrawal, soon enough we will have no one to run at all, because beyond any doubt, the tactic of smearing reputations, however damaged by other factors through sheer fabrications that play into other popular controversies of the day, will become universal.

Republicans Continue Tripping Over Their Own Feet

We no longer have the specter of Hillary haunting our upcoming electoral future. How are Republicans going to motivate the voters into turning out en masse to the Congressional elections next year when a) the momentum is with the Democrats, who are staunchly opposing Donald Trump (and any Republican initiative) b) Republicans are disunited and ready to eat each other alive c) many Republican Congressmen are retiring, so many of the spots will be up for grabs and d) Republicans have thus far failed spectacularly to deliver on their promises? You cannot keep scaring people with imaginary boogeymen forever, and you cannot keep feeding them incoherent and half-baked promises that your own state's constituents don't actually want or you are not ready to full-heartedly sell to them and to fight for in Congress. You also cannot keep backing Obama-lite foreign policy that leaves us and our allies less secure and dominated by aggressive and tyrannical powers. 

At the rate we are going, we are facing a massive and well-deserved blowout... which will not teach anybody, anything as Republicans, after each loss, will continue to use DOnald Trump's unpopularity or failure of any particular candidate to align with him, for this loss rather than engage in self-reflection on how party can do better. I've said it before and I'll say it again: you can bully people into supporting a particular candidate at the Convention. You cannot bully them or the entire country into sharing the spirit of the message that candidate brings. That just doesn't work; GOP's messaging continues to be behind the times and poorly delivered, and the same "old hands" from their positions of looking down, continue to believe that charging after your own and forcefeeding cheap propaganda somehow translates into unity building are completely delusional. I do not hope that the Republican politicians will take any lessons from last night's electoral developments or the very obvious pattern easily observable on the ground, but I do hope that grassroots, sooner or later, and with however many election losses and intersectionality victories it requires, eventually figure it out.

Beware of the Donors

You know who's really driving the GOP? It's not Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. It's the donors. They can't do anything about or to Trump, but they can do a great deal of damage to the House, Senate, and state candidates if they decide to. The issue is that not all of these billionaires are of alike mind about, well, anything, so it's hard to predict whether their money will actually do any good or will go down a black hole.

If they can get their act together and figure out which candidates they can all back in good conscience, we may see some changes = and perhaps a signal to the administration. How the billionaires and their influence lines up with what Trump's base actually wants is a different issue. There is definitely some interloping, but I think the donors will be more likely than the base to criticize Trump himself, as well as members of his administration. Whether Democrats and any future primary candidates will be smart enough to figure out where these difference lie and how to exploit them remains to be seen.