In 2004, amid pressure for an unpopular war in Iraq that wasn’t going so well, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, “As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
On December 12 of this year, Alabama voters will decide who will fill the US Senate seat formerly occupied by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The two, major candidates are Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones. This isn’t a binary choice, as our great and wise leaders repeatedly chant. Voters can choose Moore, Jones, Libertarian Ron Bishop, or Independent Arlester McBride. They can also write in their preferred candidate or abstain from voting.
Unlike exiting Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who said he would vote for Doug Jones, well-intentioned and thoughtful conservatives like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh are in the abstention camp. They rightly recoil at the allegations that Roy Moore sexually assaulted young girls, one as young as 14. Some on the right call Moore a pedophile, which is not accurate even if the story of him fondling the 14-year-old is true, since pedophilia concerns pre-pubescent children. It’s morally reprehensible and illegal, but it’s not pedophilia.
So, whom do we support?
My fellow Americans, we are at war – in the political and cultural sense. It’s what Dennis Prager often calls a civil war, albeit so far without physical casualties. The two combatants in this war are the left and everyone else. We need articulate candidates with integrity and good character to right the American ship, and steer her away from the iceberg. We would do well to have candidates with spotless records – not even Mr. Rogers clean, but just normal.
In Alabama, however, we don’t have that choice. We didn’t have that choice in last year’s presidential election, either. On one side, we had the worst candidate in modern political history, Hillary Clinton. On the other, Donald Trump (and the third-party candidates). Before the election, the people I spoke to didn’t like their choices but as the results trickled in that Tuesday night, it was clear the American people likely
would have voted for Pennywise over Kim Jong-Hill.
If you believe Roy Moore to be guilty, you can make the case that electing him would further compromise the integrity of our body politic and America in general. Other than voting for Doug Jones, you can write in your guy or not vote. But I believe anything short of voting for Roy Moore will ensure a Jones victory, and I don’t think we have the luxury of the time it will take to cleanse our political system of people like a (presumed guilty) Moore.
Many have also claimed that we have convicted Hillary of her multiple crimes without due process. True, her crimes have not been adjudicated. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t undeniable facts against Hillary that those in Washington – who could have charged her long ago – have simply let slide. Is there a soul on this planet that doesn’t believe if Hillary were anyone else, she wouldn’t already be in prison?
To Roy Moore’s detractors, a question: Roy Moore has been in the public eye for decades. Don’t you think that in the middle of his fight to keep the 10 Commandments at the Alabama Supreme Court building, that if these allegations were true, the left – and many on the right — would have bludgeoned him to political death and dumped the body on the side of the road? It was a picture-perfect opportunity to show a man’s weapons-grade hypocrisy. The argument would go like this: “This sanctimonious prig, hiding behind his religion, has a history of sexual harassment and assault. He’s out.”
We’re on the battlefield of politics, of mostly stupid and destructive ideas that get voted on or become administrative regulation with the power of statute. We can’t let someone like Doug Jones win. If you don’t like your choices, I’m with you. I don’t either. But whining about this predicament is like getting shot at in a foxhole and saying, “This shouldn’t be so.” The political bullets are whistling past our ears, and any one of those could find its way between our eyes. We can complain, or we can shoot back – or at least take cover while we regroup.
photo credit: davef3138 No whining allowed at the shack via photopin (license)
