Corporate Democrat Doug
Jones defeats far-right evangelical Roy Moore in Alabama Senate race
By
Barry Grey
13 December 2017
In a special election Tuesday to fill the US Senate seat from
Alabama vacated by President Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions,
conservative Democrat Doug Jones defeated ultra-right former state Supreme
Court chief judge Roy Moore.
It was the first time a Democrat won a US Senate election in
Alabama since the election in 1992 of Richard Shelby, who subsequently became a
Republican and remains today the state’s senior senator.
The vote count as of this writing was 49.9 percent for Jones to
48.4 percent for Moore, a narrow but comfortable margin. Despite the fact that
state law triggers an automatic recount only if the margin of difference is 0.5
percent or below, Moore refused to concede the election following Jones’
victory speech and indicated that he would contest the outcome.
The Democratic victory was the result of a higher-than expected
turnout of more than 40 percent, with turnout particularly high, compared to
previous elections, among African Americans and young people. Voter turnout was
especially heavy in the major urban centers of Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville
and Montgomery. Moore won, as expected, in the rural largely white parts of the
state, but he lost in the black rural areas, where turnout was much higher.
Jones had a big advantage among younger voters and won
overwhelming majorities among African Americans. He also won the independent
vote by 9 points, an indication that Moore was abandoned by sections of
affluent white voters who traditionally vote Republican. Some 22,000 voters
cast write-in ballots, a higher number than Jones’ margin of victory. On
Sunday, Senator Shelby had told CNN that he would not vote for Moore and he
urged Alabama Republicans to write in the names of other Republicans.
The result is a serious blow to Trump, who intervened strongly in
favor of Moore after the Senate Republican leadership withdrew its support
following allegations that the 70-year-old former judge had made improper
sexual advances to teenage girls when he was a deputy district attorney in his
30s.
Jones’ admission to the Senate will cut the Republicans’ majority
to one, 51 to 49.
The election campaign itself was a spectacle of political reaction
and mud-slinging. Moore is a fascistic evangelical who advocates the
establishment of a theocracy in the United States. He supports making
homosexuality a crime, glorifies the pre-Civil War South, has called for the
deployment of US troops on the border with Mexico and promotes xenophobia as
part of a pseudo-populist crusade against the “Eastern establishment.”
He was twice removed from the state Supreme Court for defying
federal court rulings against his agenda of religious bigotry. The first
occasion was his refusal to abide by a ruling that he take down a three-ton
monument to the Ten Commandments which he had installed outside the Supreme
Court building. The second was his issuing of instructions to probate court
judges to continue enforcing a state law banning same-sex marriage that had
been overturned by the federal courts.
In one campaign appearance, Moore was asked when he believed
America was last “great.” He said one would have to go back to the period
before the Civil War, i.e., during the period of slavery in the South. In 2011,
he told a right-wing talk show host that getting rid of every amendment to the
US Constitution after the 10th would “eliminate many problems.” That would mean
overturning the amendments that freed the slaves, guaranteed the democratic
rights of freedmen and granted them the right to vote.
In 2009 and 2010, Moore’s Foundation for Moral law hosted
pro-Confederate Alabama “Secession Day” celebrations.
Jones and the Democratic Party virtually ignored Moore’s
ultra-right policies and instead based their campaign almost entirely on
playing up accusations of sexual misconduct against the Republican candidate.
As Election Day approached, the national Democratic Party and its allied media
sought to leverage the Moore allegations to revive charges of sexual harassment
against Donald Trump that had first been raised by the media and the Hillary
Clinton presidential campaign in 2016. This will undoubtedly be intensified
following Jones’ victory.
Indeed, USA
Today published an editorial Tuesday night that cited a Trump
tweet with sexual innuendos directed against Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,
who had called for his resignation over sexual allegations against him. The
newspaper declared that Trump was unfit to remain president.
Apart from this sexual mud-slinging, Jones stressed his
independence from the national Democratic Party, his support for increased
military spending, his commitment to fiscal austerity and his backing for tax
cuts to improve the business climate for corporations wishing to exploit the
deeply impoverished working class in Alabama. He combined an appeal to black voters
with an effort to win over disaffected Republicans.
Jones made no class appeal whatsoever in a state that is a byword
for crushing poverty and exploitation, and offered no serious proposals to
address unemployment, poverty wages or lack of decent education, housing and
health care.
Nevertheless, he benefited from growing opposition to Trump and
his administration’s attacks on health care and democratic rights, its push for
a $1.5 trillion tax windfall for the rich and threats to unleash a nuclear war
against North Korea. According to exit polls, Trump’s disapproval rating of 48
percent equaled his approval rating. This is in a state that he won last year
by a margin of 63 percent to 35 percent.
In his victory speech, Jones reiterated his campaign themes of
“unity” and bipartisan cooperation with the Republicans, declaring, “We tried
to make sure this campaign was about finding common ground.” He said nothing
about the pervasive poverty in Alabama, the fourth poorest state in the
country, where household median income is nearly $11,000 less than the national
figure. Nor did he mention, let alone criticize, Moore’s fascistic politics.
The Democratic victory, which clearly came as a shock to Jones
himself, revealed the fragility of the hold of right-wing populist and nativist
politics on states that have long been conceded by the Democrats to the
Republicans. Alabama itself has undergone a significant development in recent
years, with the entry of major firms such as Airbus, Mercedes Benz, Honda and
Hyundai and the rapid growth of an industrial working class.
Manufacturing workers made up between 13 and 16 percent of the
total workforce in 2015. That is the fifth highest concentration of all states,
according to the National Association of Manufacturers, and a substantial
increase from a decade ago.
Neither of the right-wing parties of US big
business offers any policies to defend the
interests of workers in Alabama or any other
state. Nor was Tuesday’s election an
indication of a surge in support for the
Democrats. Exit polls showed that the
majority of voters disapproved of both
parties, and by similar margins.
business offers any policies to defend the
interests of workers in Alabama or any other
state. Nor was Tuesday’s election an
indication of a surge in support for the
Democrats. Exit polls showed that the
majority of voters disapproved of both
parties, and by similar margins.
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