WaPo: Roy Moore underage sex allegations. 12/4 update: Trump endorses. Jones wins

[fskimospy]

I don't want to go in endless circles with you on this. We'll just have to wait and see how things turn out, but we are of different opinions of how much this means in regards to Trump. Had Moore lost and not had accusations of being a pedophile, I would have found this Democratic victory significantly more surprising.

Of course we are, haha. Here's some more reading for you which I have no doubt you will dismiss. The most important takeaway is that the current national environment has about a +10 democratic shift to it. That's very, very bad for Trump as that's almost certainly enough to comfortably take the House.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-shouldnt-assume-roy-moore-was-an-outlier/

With the House that gives them subpoena power and then it's off to the races on corruption.

 

[bshole]

Of course we are, haha. Here's some more reading for you which I have no doubt you will dismiss. The most important takeaway is that the current national environment has about a +10 democratic shift to it. That's very, very bad for Trump as that's almost certainly enough to comfortably take the House.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-shouldnt-assume-roy-moore-was-an-outlier/

With the House that gives them subpoena power and then it's off to the races on corruption.

The first people to go after are Republicans who received enormous political donations from large corporations/billionaires and then turned around and cut the corporate tax rate, chopped the inheritance tax and gutted funding for gifted college students (within the next few days). That is simple bribery and is as bad as anything Trump did. In addition, go to the FCC and drag Pai out in chains. He is a flat out criminal. At the very least, make it impossible for him to ever work for any ISP again in his miserable filthy little life.

 

[VRAMdemon]

If you actually believe this isn't a big deal and a sign of larger issues you are delusional.

By all means though, keep convincing yourself (and other conservatives) that this is nothing to worry about! Let's see how that works for you.

I dunno...I'm not calling it a "big deal" yet

Alabama is a deep, deep red state that damn near elected a religious extremist, white supremacist with a history of molesting teenaged girls. That is literally what it took for a Republican to NOT be elected. A Republican who appears moderately sane would have defeated Jones easily.

It is a referendum on Trumps ability to lead the party electorally. He likes to pick losers. He has no leadership. It may be quiet at first, but it will happen, and I would assume it will start now.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

AL loves Jeff Sessions, he won the senate by at least ~20 points in past elections he did have a Dem opponent. Roy Moore was no Jeff Sessions.

And Trump won it by 28% and yet in exit polling his support was dead even at 48% approve/disapprove. Now it was dead even for one of 2 reasons. Either far more Dems than GOP voters turned out, (according to exit polls, they didn't. It was 43% GOP, 37% Dem 21% independent) or he is just viewed that unfavorably in the state. Neither of those things are good for him.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Alabama is a deep, deep red state that damn near elected a religious extremist, white supremacist with a history of molesting teenaged girls. That is literally what it took for a Republican to NOT be elected. A Republican who appears moderately sane would have defeated Jones easily.

I agree here, I'm not sure that this really says much about the Republican party as a whole. Moore was just about the worst candidate imaginable, and he still made it a very close race. The takeaway here is that it would not have taken much at all for Moore to have won this race handily, and in fact he could still pull off and upset if they twist the rules just right. Expect some legal challenges in the coming weeks.

The thing I hope the democrats take away from this is just how important it is to get the minority vote out. That they use this as a example of just how much power minorities can muster when they get to the polls. Democrats need to start promising minorities that they will fight for their right to vote, that they will make sure their voice is heard in politics, and that if they show up on election day it will change the outcome, just like it did in Alabama.

 

[Ajay]

I can honestly say going into yesterday morning I was fully expecting Moore to win by around 3%. I had that little faith in people of Alabama to make a rational decision. I was wrong, and I owe many of them an apology. Last night we saw young voters, educated voters, and minorities swing hard toward Jones. Doug Jones seems to be a legitimately decent human being and I hope he is able to show his constituents that decency and compassion can actually govern well.

This is now the second election in a matter of weeks where a Trumped backed candidate went down. The GOP must be shitting a collective pile of bricks. Their populist leader can't get his candidates to win. Their establishment candidates aren't Trump enough to rile that base. I see a wave of new announcements of retirements coming again.

Or a wave of losses in 2018. Kudos to Jones' win - hopefully it will be the beginning of end for this sad GOP senate majority that is intent on ripping off the average American worker in favor of corporations and the wealthy.