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Scott Shelton discusses the major campaign slogans of Roy Moore, and questions how they stand compared to his previous actions and predecessors.
Scott Shelton
Staff Writer
Roy Moore defeated Luther Strange to win the Republican Party’s nomination in an election that saw Roy Moore and Alabama voters undermine the Republicans in Washington, D.C.
Before the election, the two candidates had a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate in which there was no moderator, and each candidate got a chance to speak for five minutes at a time about any topic of his choosing.
After Moore backed out of a candidate’s forum at Samford University, some were suggesting Moore did not want to debate at all, and his weaknesses showed.
“I think Roy is a good speaker, but he’s not good in a debate.” said David Kirby, a lecturer of journalism. “A lot of ideologues aren’t.
“They don’t debate well because they have one viewpoint and won’t deviate from it. They won’t do a lot of compromising.”
In the debate, Strange touted his endorsement from President Trump and his unconditional support for Trump’s agenda.
However, this did not seem to help Strange. Moore beat Strange by six percentage points in the primary, and in the runoff he won by 16 percentage points.
Alabamians love Trump, but they have loved Moore for much longer.
Moore, to many Alabamians, has a long record of standing up for his Christian beliefs against a lawless, amoral and overreaching government.
In 2003, Moore was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to take a Ten Commandments statue off the capitol building. Since then he has had strong evangelical support, which makes up a majority of the Alabama electorate.
Strange was painted as a symbol of establishment corruption and became what Alabamians are frustrated with in Congress.
“You can see it’s a referendum of the people saying they’re fed up with the same, tired establishment incumbents who can’t stand up for anything,” said Everett Bossard, the chairman of the Campus Republicans. “That’s basically what happened with Luther Strange.
“Alabamians are tired of politicians who don’t know anything, can’t agree on anything, and can’t get anything done.”
While attorney general, Strange accepted a Senate appointment from former Alabama governor Robert he was supposed to be investigating, and Alabama voters saw right through it.
“The appointment by Governor Bentley played a huge factor,” said Bossard. “I think a lot of people thought there was something going on behind the curtains.”
Now, Moore advances to face the Democratic nominee, Doug Jones, in the general election on Dec. 12. The winner will represent Alabama in the United States Senate.
With the election two months away, Alabama has a decision to make.
Does it elect a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted members of the KKK for bombing a black church, or does it send a man who has defended the right of the state to jail people for being homosexual?
“Homosexual conduct should be illegal,” said Moore in a 2005 interview with Bill Press on C-SPAN2.
In an opinion from a 2002 Alabama Supreme Court case, Moore said homosexuality is “abominable, detestable, unmentionable, and too disgusting and well known to require other definition or further details or description.”
In the case, Moore granted custody of a couple’s two children to the father, who had admitted to hitting his children, over the mother because she was homosexual.
Moore then said that the state must use its power to prevent “subversion of children toward this lifestyle, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle.”
Roy Moore won the nomination for Senate, and he resembles an uprising in the Republican Party that is being enabled by nationalists like Steve Bannon.
Normalizing ideals like Moore’s and allowing this shift in the Republican Party will take this country back to how it was before the Civil Rights Movement when states disregarded human rights and regularly subjugated minorities.
I hope Alabama forgets party affiliation on Dec. 12 and votes for the decent man who won’t embarrass our state in the United States Senate.
