Alabama

As I write this it appears that Judge Moore will lose the special election in Alabama to replace Jeff Sessions. It seems, unless there is some challenge, that Doug Jones, Democrat, will take that "safe" Republican seat. This is not good for many reasons and for many people.

The Trump agenda is already having trouble in the Senate with the thin and fickle Republican majority. The President, and those of us who voted for him, cannot count on the likes of McCain and several others to help pull the plug on the DC swamp. Now, of course, again, Jones will serve the two years remaining on Sessions' term, and then stand for re-election. It seems highly likely that a Republican will replace him. I think. I hope. Who knows?

This is not good for the nation's politics. The Democrats are likely going to think they have a winning formula here which they can use at will throughout the political world, to wit, make the election, with the help of the media, about the character and personal life of a Republican opponent, and downplay the positions of the Democrat, in effect, making the Democrat invisible. During the Alabama special election, for example, one hardly saw mention of Moore's opponent: what did he advocate? It turns out he's pretty much a typical progressive, and the Dems found it convenient not to exhibit his beliefs and prescriptions in conservative Alabama. Instead, they focused on the politics of personal destruction, a repeat of what they tried with Trump. Moore, however, was no Trump, and just could not fend off the barrage of accusations hurled at him on a daily basis from a variety of accusers and their media enablers. It became impossible to separate fact from fiction, the credible from the incredible. I, for one, do not believe the accusations against Moore: it doesn't make sense that he was a rapid perv some forty years ago, and then suddenly stopped. No evidence, except a forged yearbook entry, was presented, instead the media gleefully went along with the unproven "pedo" label for Moore. We' re going to see that again and again.

This is not good for Al Franken and others of his ilk. That imbecile, for one, will now have no excuse not to resign. It will also not be good news for a number of politicians who will face accusations of a similar nature and will find that there is no longer due process: a lot of those are going to be Democrats as the gates are now open to these sort of accusations, be they authentic or not. Bill Clinton could not have survived in today's atmosphere. The coarsening of the debate will be immense.

The North Koreans work on their weapons of mass destruction in cooperation, it seems, with Iran. The jihadis continue to overrun Europe. The EU lectures us on not making a competitive tax regime. We will be debating whether somebody did something "inappropriate" forty years ago.