Before the results came in last night, I had started writing a post about the special election in Alabama. I really thought that Alabamans would elect so-called Judge Roy Moore, and I was going to open with the following line: “It is stunning that a majority of voters in Alabama voted a known sexual predator and pedophile into the US Senate. I am at a loss for words.”
Of course, so-called Judge Roy Moore did not win. Doug Jones won. Therefore, I will begin in this way: It is stunning that a majority of voters in Alabama, a solidly red state, elected a Democrat into the US Senate.
Doug Jones is certainly a man of good sense and integrity. Still, I really thought that in such a deep red state that disgusting and abhorrent behavior would trump veracity and decency. Party over principle.
Yet Doug Jones won. Still, 48% or 650,000-plus Alabamans – most of whom, I suspect, would classify themselves as “Christians” – cast votes for a serial predator and a credibly accused pedophile. One woman (pictured in the tweet at the right) actually said she voted for Roy Moore because he is "closer to God." “Closer to God”? Seriously? In his election night concession speech – after he exclaimed that “God is always in control” – Moore went on to bewail, “what we’ve got to do is wait on God and let this process play out.” |
This phony faith and specious religiosity is repulsive – and it’s not the first time counterfeit “Christians” cast ballots for a miscreant.
Back in the late 1800s, 48% of the electorate in Alabama cast votes for Smudgely Moore, a convicted felon and distant relative of Roy Moore’s, for a post in their state government. Fortunately, goodness prevailed in that election too, and Smudgely lost. Pictured at the right: Smudgely Moore Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) wrote a scornful poem about the disgrace of the spurious “Christians” who voted for Moore and the “shame” of their party line vote. Dickinson's poem, "Shame is now Crimson Red," is below on the left. His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Shame is the shawl of Pink" (below on the right). |
By Emmett Lee Dickinson: Shame is now Crimson Red In which they’ve wrapped their Souls They keep it in a Christian Guise An incidental Veil Which all the World sees through When morals are obscene Repugnant is their disrepute Shame is the party line | By Emily Dickinson: Shame is the shawl of Pink In which we wrap the Soul To keep it from infesting Eyes – The elemental Veil Which helpless Nature drops When pushed upon a scene Repugnant to her probity – Shame is the tint divine. |