Roy Moore and the New Right

Post date: Dec 11, 2017 3:50:15 PM

Published 12/11/17

Nick Robertson, '19

ROY MOORE FOR SENATE/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Multiple Republican organizations still support Roy Moore’s candidacy despite his sexual misconduct allegations. Recently, President Donald Trump threw his support behind Moore, and with his support came the money of the Republican National Convention, who had previously withheld their funding because of the scandal.

The Republican Party has long claimed

to be the party of good morals and the party of conservative religious beliefs. Times are changing, and this is becoming less and less true with every election cycle. Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is the best example of this change.

To date, nine women have accused the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court of various degrees of sexual misconduct. Allegedly, Moore romantically pursued these nine women as teenagers when he was in his 30s. One woman, 14 years old at the time, accused Moore of sexual assault.

Moore has denied the allegations, but both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan have asked Moore to drop out of his race. Even though Moore has faced backlash from the left, and many leaders in the Republican party itself, Moore has said that he will continue to run for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ vacated Senate seat.

Recent polls, after initially showing lower popularity for Moore, have started to rebound. Moore is leading his opponent Doug Jones by two percent. This shows that voters may have forgotten about the allegations or that time has lessened their significance. The special election between Jones and Moore will be held Dec. 12.

Today, the so-called party of morals and righteousness is supporting a candidate who has been accused of something that could not be less moral. It proves that many voters no longer vote with their minds, or their hearts, but rather with their eyes, looking at the name of the party next to the name of the candidates.

Jones, the Democratic Party’s candidate in the race, has no morally ambiguous past, and has done many good things during his career as a federal prosecutor, even prosecuting the men who committed the Birmingham Church Bombing that killed four children in 1963. Only those without moral character would still support Moore, who still may be elected to the Senate.

The evangelical right, defined by their strong religious beliefs, still supports Moore and other politicians like him. One Alabama voter compared Moore’s actions to a passage from the Bible, saying that Moore’s interest in teenagers was no issue because of the story of Joseph and Mary. Joseph was much older than Mary when they wed, and Mary later gave birth to Jesus in the Bible passage. Some religious people that consider themselves morally sound, now go out of their way to find excuses for an accused child molester because of their party allegiance.

Unfortunately, this trend is quickly spreading nationwide. The election of President Donald Trump, likely the most free-speaking and, frankly, vulgar president in our history, proves this point again. The idea of morality in politics, one of our democracy’s key ideals throughout its history, is rapidly degrading. Our politicians should be model citizens, always kind, thoughtful, well spoken, and informed. This trend ignores this idea, and brings the most partisan and toxic candidates to the forefront of our political system. It is time to finally put, at the very least, our country’s morals before the political party to which we may belong.

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