As you know, former Judge Roy Moore (twice removed from the bench for his refusal to obey and apply the law because he disagreed with it–once refusing to order the removal of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom, another time refusing to allow gay marriage) was selected as the Republican candidate for the Senate in Alabama yesterday.

He has the enthusiastic endorsement of Steve Bannon and Breitbart. Now that the race is over, he will get the enthusiastic endorsement of Trump.

Moore is a Bible-thumping old-style Southern politician, who is anti-gay, pro-gun, and far to the right of Trump. He ran against Mitch McConnell, and sent tremors through the Republican leadership. If he is elected to the Senate, which seems likely, he will push the party even farther to the mean, racist, xenophobic, hateful right. Now we know that the Swamp creatures are not in D.C. They are on their way to D.C., to drag the nation away from its values and ideals and turn the Republican party into the alt-right Bannon party (some think it is already the alt-right Bannon party, but Moore’s election proves it can get even more aggressive in its hostility to civil rights and civil liberties).

The few remaining Republican moderates are running scared.

The Washington Post wrote that this dreadful choice is terrifying Republicans who dare to have a moderate or reasonable bone in their body:

The stunning defeat of President Trump’s chosen Senate candidate in Alabama on Tuesday amounted to a political lightning strike — setting the stage for a worsening Republican civil war that could have profound effects on next year’s midterm elections and undermine Trump’s clout with his core voters.

The GOP primary victory by conservative firebrand Roy Moore over Sen. Luther Strange could also produce a stampede of Republican retirements in the coming months and an energized swarm of challengers.

It marked yet another humiliation for the Washington-based Republican establishment, particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose allies pumped millions of dollars into the race to prop up Strange and reassure his colleagues that they could survive the Trump era.

Moore’s win, however, also demonstrates the real political limitations of Trump, who endorsed “Big Luther” at McConnell’s urging and staged a rally for Strange in Huntsville, Ala., just days before the primary. The outcome is likely to further fray Trump’s ties to Republicans in Congress, many of whom now fear that even his endorsement cannot protect them from voter fury.

“People think about those things all the time up here,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), referring to unease in elected Republican ranks. “A lot of them won’t be run out of town — they want to stay and fight for their beliefs. But they know Moore’s supporters will come after them anyway.”

President Trump speaks at a campaign rally for Sen. Luther Strange in Huntsville, Ala., Friday. Strange was defeated in the GOP primary Tuesday.
The tremors began before the polls closed in Alabama. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced on Tuesday afternoon that he would not seek reelection in 2018, dogged by complaints from conservatives in his state over his criticism of Trump. A number of Corker’s potential primary rivals had already begun talks with wealthy donors.

“If you’re an incumbent, you have to assume the wind is against you,” said consultant Tom Ingram, a longtime Corker adviser. “If you do run, you take nothing for granted and leave nothing on the table. You start out with one big strike against you: You’re an incumbent Republican senator.”

For Democrats, the prospect of further retirements and revived GOP infighting has sparked talk of competing for Senate seats previously thought out of play. That is particularly true with candidates like Moore, long considered a fringe political figure who has, among other things, expressed doubts about whether former president Barack Obama was born in the United States and referred this month to “reds and yellows” in remarks on race. On the eve of the election, Moore, wearing a white cowboy hat and a black leather vest, pulled a handgun out of his pocket and flashed it at a rally.

“It’s an acid flashback to 2010,” said Charlie Sykes, a former conservative talk-radio host, referring to the year when seasoned GOP figures lost Senate primaries across the country as incendiary conservatives charged forward.

“It’s almost as if there is a compulsion in the party to nominate the most ‘out there’ candidate just to show you can, with no concern about what that means for the rest of the party,” Sykes said. “Republicans — and that means Trump, too — have unleashed something they can’t control.”

Hard-line challengers to Senate Republicans seized on the fall of Strange, who had been boosted by Trump and millions in outside Republican spending, as a sign of how the clamor of anti-establishment forces like Breitbart News — chaired by former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon — could empower them, regardless of whether Trump rallies behind sitting senators.

“People everywhere are outraged with the swamp, but there has been hesitation in some states among people who are thinking about it. They wondered whether these senators can be beat. This changes all of that,” said Danny Tarkanian, a GOP businessman running against Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.).