“If You Don't Want People To Think You're Stupid...”

Alabama has done it again. For those of you who do not know or may have forgotten about the Judge Roy Moore debacle, let me remind you:

Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2017, each time being removed from office for judicial misconduct by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. He was the Republican Party nominee in the 2017 U.S. Senate special election in Alabama to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, but was accused by several women of sexually assaulting them while they were underage and lost to Democratic candidate Doug Jones.[1]

Moore's campaign for senate was almost a terrible stereotype of southern politics. He seized every opportunely to be photographed on horseback and/or with a gun, and he engaged in an incessant babble about defending freedom from threats that were mostly imaginary.

When the allegations about his (Moore's) pedophilia came out and he did not instantly tank in the election polls, it seemed to Alabamans as if the rest of the nation was giving Alabama a great big horse laugh. Some pundits were asking how the hell Alabamans could even consider putting this miscreant in the U.S. Senate? This caused many Alabamans complain about the rest of the nation seeing them as provincial, red neck, simpletons. Basketball hall of famer, Charles Barkley, who was born in Alabama, offered this piece of advice to people who were thinking about voting for Roy Moore: “If you don't want people to think you're stupid, don't do stupid things!”

Alabama was bright enough to reject Roy Moore and elect Doug Jones, but as the sane people of this nation will attest, Alabama's election of Senator Tommy Tuberville was a huge mistake made because of the extreme right wing ideology that is so prevalent in the deep south. This time the nation is not laughing – not even in derision. The sanctimonious dullard, Senator Tuberville, is holding up the promotions and appointments of military commanders because he wants to violate the first amendment separation of church and state by depriving female members of the military the reproductive health care that was protected by Roe v. Wade. In doing so he is damaging our military and threatening the security of the United States. The long term solution is to kill the fascist elephant! I do not know of a short term solution; the ones listed by Politico are not very appealing.

The really sad thing is that there are enough delusional fascists in this country so that Tuberville can actually fund raise off of his threats to our national security and our constitution. This means we are facing an existential threat to our democracy. I am sure there are some rational people in Alabama who still believe in democracy and the rights stated in our constitution. I can only imagine their pain and frustration. Kevin, Charley, McCarthy and the MAGA's not withstanding, we are in this together.  We must remind people of that and of what is at stake if the fascist Republican Party remains a political force and threat to our democracy!