Roy Moore is almost certain to be the Junior Senator from Alabama soon enough. That much we know.
Part of me takes pleasure in the victory, as it is true that the Republican establishment of states like Alabama is sclerotic and corrupt (just like the Democratic establishment of Illinois or California). Roy Moore is certainly not a politic individual. And that makes for great entertainment. Cable news programmers just got a gift!
But Moore is also bizarre in his views in 2017. An atavism. His stance on Church-State separation was tenable a generation ago but in a rapidly secularizing America, they are not election winners outside of Alabama that they are inside the state. In a rapidly de-Christianizing country, the tight identification of the Republican party with Evangelical Christianity is not the broad-based winner it used to be, and Roy Moore manifests all the most uncouth and blunt tendencies which are going to remake the party in his brand….
Nate Silver, badly misjudging Trump’s candidacy:
“Sanders is campaigning on substantive policy positions, and Trump is largely campaigning on the force of his personality. I’m not sure this assertion requires a lot of proof, but if you need some, check out the candidates’ websites. Sanders’s lists dozens of specific policy proposals across a wide range of issues; Trump’s details his position on just one, immigration.”
And so we see the shoe on the other foot here, with Trump throwing his weight behind Chamber of Commerce Strange while simultaneously championing DACAmnesty.
Moore, meanwhile, vocally supported the RAISE Act.
I wonder how many more years people are going to continue to be surprised by these things. Until then, it’ll continue to be good for some extra income via PredictIt.