In his razor-thin victory, Doug Jones won because of the black vote.
The white vote went overwhelmingly for Moore. The black vote went for Jones, by near unanimity.
Despite efforts to suppress the vote, black voters turned out in greater numbers than they did for Obama.
NBA Star Charles Barkley campaigned for Jones. After the win, he was asked if he had a Message for Trump. He said, no, he had a message for the Democratic Party. “Stop taking the votes of black people and poor people for granted.”
Amen.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Do you have any evidence that there was an actual suppression of voting by African-Americans? How can you make such a claim?
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Some African American voters in Dothan, AL reported that regular minority voters had been placed on the “inactive” role, and that their votes would only be counted if their active status was confirmed. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/reports-of-voter-suppression-tactics-pour-in-from-alabama-election/
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The deep history of this victory is found in the Black Belt of Alabama. There’s an important “educational history” here, too, that goes to the source of “back lash” and “privatization” of public schools in Alabama that has now spread across America. That history began in Greene County, Alabama. In publication, “The Civil Rights and Education Work of Robert Brown” (Jan. 2018) Southern Journal. Authors: Thornburg, M.J, Terrar, T.
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YES. To predict actions likely to emanate from Alabama and states in the deep South, knowing state history from inception (is that the right word for the creation of state?) is crucial.
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Democrat Doug Jones successfully prosecuted two Klansmen in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four black girls, Black voters actively campaigned for Jones, and 97% of black voters voted for him.
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Read what The Onion has to say…
https://politics.theonion.com/dnc-takes-out-full-page-ad-thanking-alabama-s-working-c-1821263652
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When asked when America was last “great,” Moore said prior to the Civil War, even though we had slavery.
Comments like that cause self-inflicted suppression of the black vote.
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I read last week that Moore said the U.S. should only keep the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and get rid of 11 through 26 and that would help make America Great Again.
the 12 is about the election of the President and VP
the 15th Amendment gave voting rights to all races
the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery
the 19th Amendment gave voting rights to all men and women
the 22nd limited the president to two terms
the 25th made it easier to replace the president and VP
the 26th gave voting rights for all citizens 18 or older
http://nccs.net/online-resources/us-constitution/amendments-to-the-us-constitution/amendments-11-27
Conclusion: Moore, Trump by fiat, and the Alt-Right’s so-called freedom caucus want to be able to elect a president for life, legalize slavery again, and take away the vote from all women, all minorities and many some white men.
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The Democratic Party has to stop taking public school teachers and labor unions for granted too.
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Amen, Lloyd.
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Bingo Lloyd.
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Amen again, Lloyd. And amen again, Charles Barkley. I always liked those two guys.
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Why would they when teachers and unions will vote “less of the evils” no matter how evil the Democrats are? If your vote is guaranteed because “the Republicans are worse”, don’t expect the Democrats to change.
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So don’t vote because, if is always going to be a choice between two imperfect people that will not do what you want them to do, why vote?
For instance, who should have won World War II — FDR or Hitler?
One of the two was the lesser of two evils. FDR was no perfect.
But according to those who can’t stand anyone that doesn’t fit their perfect profile of a leader 100-percent, both FDR and Hitler were evil.
However, one was worse than the other one.
The same can be said between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
One of the two was the lesser of two evils.
I think Lord Acton was correct when he said, ““Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men …”
That’s why waiting for a perfect candidate at the presidential level that is not evil in any way is futile.
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Lloyd,
It’s not even the “perfect” candidate with some self-defined progressives. They will happily embrace a pro-charter privatizer. They will happily embrace someone who fought against gun control. They pick and choose and their favorite candidates always comprise because they are honorable and the Democrats they don’t like always compromise because they are evil and money-hungry and greedy and corrupt.
There is absolutely no nuance. They think Doug Jones is way too conservative and one of those corrupt ones. It doesn’t matter whether he fought to prosecute racists for crimes no one thought he could win. That’s more of that “identity politics” where the Dems are supposed to just shut up about what happens to non-white Americans because the racist white voters in the midwest don’t like itl.
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I guess I need to rephrase the question. How do you plan to get the Democrats to stop taking teachers and unions for granted? If you are going to vote Democratic no matter what, what motivation does the Democratic Party have to change?
Is there a point at which you would refuse to vote Democratic? If, for instance, the Democrats run Cory Booker for president in 2020 (whicih is highly likely, incidentally), do you plan to vote for him, even given the mass destruction he’s created in education? He has spit in the faces of teachers and unions. Yet he’s not a Republican and therefore the “lesser of the evils”.
Booker would please the donor class of the Democratic Party immensely. So if teachers and unions will vote for him regardless of his destruction of teaching and unions, it’s a win-win for the Democratic Party. What possible motivation would they have not to run Cory Booker?
The only motivation I can see is if and when people finally decide, no, I will not vote for Cory Booker. That doesn’t mean I am going to vote for Trump or Pence or Cruz or whoever the next Republican nominee will be. Yes, that may very well mean that Trump or Pence or Cruz gets elected (as happened in 2016, of course), but what other alternative is there? If you can present me with a plan to get the Democrats to stop taking teachers and unions and, hell, people for granted that doesn’t involve refusing to vote for them even at the risk of electing a Republican, then I’m all ears. Talking and begging and pleading for a seat at our own table have clearly not worked so far.
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I draw the line at Booker. I can’t imagine voting for him.
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Change often comes from the bottom and younger people joining the Democratic Party are in the best position to change the party as the older generations die out and/or leave.
For instance, at one time, the Democratic Party represented the racists and that party dominated the southern states until LBJ supported the Civil Rights Act and with help from Congress enacted it. Under Reagan, most if not all of the Southern States switched to the Republican Party turning the GOP into the bastion of racism.
That example in the previous paragraph is proof that change for the better can take place even in the Democratic Party.
I don’t have much hope for the GOP to reverse course though.
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Absolutely, Lloyd–and thanks for saying it.
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“The white vote went overwhelmingly for Moore. The black vote went for Jones, by near unanimity.”
I find this terrifying. Has the cancer of segregation reached every corner of Alabama to the point that it will never disappear?
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David,
Black voters know that Roy Moore is a racist who longs for the good old days of racial subjugation. The wonder is not that 95-98% vote for Jones, but why it was not 100%. As for whites, 30% voted for Jones, who is a middle of the road liberal. What we saw in the white vote in this election is what happens in a state that clings to low spending on education, fundamentalist religious views, and racism.
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I can guarantee my white friends in Alabama did not vote for Roy Moore. One of them is very proud of the fact that Alabama favorite daughter, Helen Keller, spent time in the Communist Party in the thirties. We should recall that there is a history of labor activism in the steel industry in Birmingham that makes for unique southern politics. There is also a relatively inactive young population of those with African descent, making the voting public very potentially somewhat liquid. Finally, environmental evangelicals are an expanding group all across the country.
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