My good friend Larry Lee lives in Alabama and blogs about education.
We have been exchanging emails about the Senate election, but I could tell Larry was getting fed up. The polls have swung back and forth, and no one knows who will win. My view, for what it’s worth, is that if Roy Moore wins, he will be an albatross for the entire Republican Party. If they couldn’t bring themselves to disown a man who was twice thrown off the State Supreme Court for refusing to obey the law, a man who hates Muslims and gays, a man who longs for the good old days of slavery, then the party stands for nothing but ambition and power.
Larry finally broke down and wrote about the election.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
While I admire the Larry’s views and especially his phrase “the complete and absolute madness masquerading as a special election for the U.S. Senate”, I am dismayed that he forayed into “both sides” territory without providing specific examples. If one were to pile the misrepresentations and lies of “both sides” onto a balancing scale, there is no question which side of the scale would be close to touching bottom. Whatever missteps and misrepresentations the Jones campaign may have made can, in my view, be characterized at worst as clumsy attempts to push back not he avalanche of lies and inconvenient facts coming out of the Moore and Republican Party camps.
I am particularly dismayed by the response of certain black political leaders who have come out against Jones because of an admittedly poorly conceived flyer. There’s nothing in it that is false, but the execution and delivery was poor. But again, it does not measure up to the other side—not “both sides.” Should black voter turnout be poor and laid on the alter of this misstep and apathy, then I hope the state will be happy with the ghosts of Jim Crow that Moore’s election will certainly resurrect and institutionalize. Remember that Doug Jones prosecuted the descendants of Jim Crow. Roy Moore celebrates them.
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Re: the reactions to the Jones flyer, sometimes I wonder if people have become addicted to the euphoric feeling they seem to get when they have an opportunity to express righteous indignation — the thrill of expressing some “smart take” on an issue that puts them on the right side of things. We just love it.
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https://www.theroot.com/a-racist-flyer-might-cost-doug-jones-the-election-becau-1821065764
“Someone, probably a white man, thought that the image would resonate with black people and motivate them to get out the vote. It’s as if black people were considering voting for the child molester until some brilliant strategist posited, “What if he were black, though?” The flyer is reductive in its oversimplification of the black mind as only caring about black issues. While it might not be racist, it is certainly racist adjacent.
It is also the Democratic Party.
Part of the reason the Democratic Party has been marginalized as a party that only exists on the coasts and in urban areas is white-mannery like this. While the policies of the party may be more progressive and black-friendly, the Democratic leadership is often as prejudiced and shortsighted as its Republican counterparts, and next week’s Senate election is the perfect example.
The Democratic Party is trash. It is the reason Hillary Clinton lost. It is the reason Donald Trump is president. It is the reason I might be represented in the U.S. Senate by a grown man who probably went to see Twilight in the theaters and stood by the candy counter asking teenage girls if they wanted a sugar daddy.”
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Until about a year and half ago, I probably would have agreed with the writer of this article. (Don’t get me started on the gross ineptitude of my state’s Democratic Party.) But I’ve realized that in our system, love it or hate it, we are at some point in electoral politics, faced with binary choices. We do not have a parliamentary system, our governing is defined by the primary season. Yes, theoretically, we have other choices. I, myself, once passionately supported a third party candidate because I was believed in the overall agenda.
Now, however, I realize that it is just as important to vote for imperfect candidates, hopefully because one agrees with the majority of their platforms, more often than not because one opposes the alternative. But should the candidate one ultimately supports win, that’s not the end of the process. Then one has to be as vehement, if not more so, to point out flaws and engage in the citizenship and advocacy needed to inform them and try to change them.
The person writing this article will have a strong case to make to a potential Sen. Jones and his party than he will ever have to a Sen. Moore. Citizenship shouldn’t end with the results of an election. But I suspect I am preaching to the choir, just with a different sermon.
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We also need broad coalitions. The central thrust of that Root article, which I think gets obscured by the “the Democratic Party is Trash” theme, is that Democrats need to spend more time talking about and pursuing “kitchen-table” economic policy, and less time on identity politics. I think that’s true. At least, it’s something I wish the Democratic Party would do.
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I’ll sing alto, not sure if you’re a tenor or bass, but together I think we could find the harmony. 🙃
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Will the honorable people of Alabama at least just not vote for Moore? Surely, the intelligent evangelical voters of Alabama should realize that a vote for Moore will increase the number of abortions nationwide because Moore will vote to pass the Republican tax bill that takes away the medical insurance of people who need it most, causing many more of them to decide that they can’t afford the medical expense of having and raising a baby. The Republican law will also lower the after-tax income of middle class Americans, causing more of them to decide to terminate pregnancies because they can’t afford another child. America has had strict laws against abortion in the past and yet there were always abortions. The best way to lower the number of abortions isn’t to outlaw them because people will always find a way to get them — the best way is to provide families with medical insurance and sufficient income on which they can afford to raise healthy children.
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“The best way to lower the number of abortions isn’t to outlaw them because people will always find a way to get them”
So you’re saying that there were more abortions per capita before Roe v. Wade than after Roe v. Wade?
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I applaud these women who speak out. Hope it makes a difference. This is definitely an “Ugly Political Season”. Of course tRump denies being a sexual predator. The CREEP can’t take criticism but he sure can dish it out.
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Jessica Leeds says Trump called her a derogatory name after airplane incident
TP Clips
Published on Dec 11, 2017
Megyn Kelly TODAY, 12/11/17
President Trump ‘Kept Kissing Me’ In Trump Tower, Woman Says: ‘I Was Devastated’
Published on Dec 11, 2017
Megyn Kelly TODAY
Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey and Rachel Crooks, all of whom have accused President Trump of sexual misconduct, continue their discussion with Megyn Kelly. Crooks, who used to work in Trump Tower and says she saw Trump daily, says that when she introduced himself to him, “he held onto my hand and kept kissing me,” eventually kissing her on the mouth. As the segment airs, the White House issues a statement saying that the “false claims” are politically motivated.
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