Arkady
President
I have couple quick positive things to say about Republicans, today.
(1) First, I've been pretty tough on the national Republicans and on conservatives in the Deep South. I saw them both as hypocrites who'd align themselves with any evil if it helped them push their political power. So, I fully expected that after all the mealy-mouthed criticism of Moore from the right, the national GOP would give him their support, just as they did to Donald Trump. I also expected nearly all the Republicans and conservatives in Alabama would vote for him. In essence, I thought that even a serial child molester could count on support from those groups if he had the "Magic R."
I ended up being mostly right when it came to the national GOP. When it came right down to it, they threw him their support -- Trump endorsed him and used his pulpit to try to help him win, and the RNC gave him their financial support. But Alabama proved me wrong -- at least a little bit wrong. Although 91% of Republicans voted for Moore, that still means 9% of them voted for Jones or a write-in, which is slightly better than I would have expected. About 17% of self-identifying "conservatives" did so, which is even better. And a tiny portion of white evangelicals appear to have been discouraged enough by their apparent child-molester candidate that the turnout of the group declined. So, although the story of Jones's win is mostly about strong African American turnout and disgusted independents flocking to Jones, it turns out that not all the conservatives and Republicans in the state are evil. It also turns out, according to exit polls, that Alabama is on the right track. Although the election was a nail-biter overall, it was a massive landslide for Jones with voters under 45. He got 60% of the votes of people under 30, and 61% from age 30-44. So, there's hope that as the old segregation-era voters die off, Alabama will improve dramatically.
(2) Rex Tillerson just announced that he'd be willing to meet with North Korean negotiators without pre-conditions. That's a great move, not just relative to the administration's prior position, but even relative to the Obama administration's position, which was always to require North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions before we'd even deign to talk to them directly. That prior policy was idiotic, and made real progress pretty much impossible. Now there's some hope. Off the top of my head I can't think of a single other Trump administration policy that's an improvement over what we had with Obama, so this really sticks out and needs to be praised.
(1) First, I've been pretty tough on the national Republicans and on conservatives in the Deep South. I saw them both as hypocrites who'd align themselves with any evil if it helped them push their political power. So, I fully expected that after all the mealy-mouthed criticism of Moore from the right, the national GOP would give him their support, just as they did to Donald Trump. I also expected nearly all the Republicans and conservatives in Alabama would vote for him. In essence, I thought that even a serial child molester could count on support from those groups if he had the "Magic R."
I ended up being mostly right when it came to the national GOP. When it came right down to it, they threw him their support -- Trump endorsed him and used his pulpit to try to help him win, and the RNC gave him their financial support. But Alabama proved me wrong -- at least a little bit wrong. Although 91% of Republicans voted for Moore, that still means 9% of them voted for Jones or a write-in, which is slightly better than I would have expected. About 17% of self-identifying "conservatives" did so, which is even better. And a tiny portion of white evangelicals appear to have been discouraged enough by their apparent child-molester candidate that the turnout of the group declined. So, although the story of Jones's win is mostly about strong African American turnout and disgusted independents flocking to Jones, it turns out that not all the conservatives and Republicans in the state are evil. It also turns out, according to exit polls, that Alabama is on the right track. Although the election was a nail-biter overall, it was a massive landslide for Jones with voters under 45. He got 60% of the votes of people under 30, and 61% from age 30-44. So, there's hope that as the old segregation-era voters die off, Alabama will improve dramatically.
(2) Rex Tillerson just announced that he'd be willing to meet with North Korean negotiators without pre-conditions. That's a great move, not just relative to the administration's prior position, but even relative to the Obama administration's position, which was always to require North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions before we'd even deign to talk to them directly. That prior policy was idiotic, and made real progress pretty much impossible. Now there's some hope. Off the top of my head I can't think of a single other Trump administration policy that's an improvement over what we had with Obama, so this really sticks out and needs to be praised.
.
