DanishDynamite said:
I think AmateurScientist is the person to ask. He has previously been quite adament that Alabama isn't the backwater some think it is.
For the sake of Alabama, I hope he's right.
Yes, I have. I still am.
Do I think Moore's political future is limited? Yep. I think that he and the media and outsiders seriously overestimate his political support base in Alabama. Sure, he got elected in 2000, but his opponent was not as well known, was not particularly distinguished, and was a Democrat. Also, he only won by a slim margin, despite what some have claimed.
If you recall, Bush got Alabama's electoral votes in 2000. Moore, a Republican like Bush, could have gotten a lot of votes by persons voting a straight party ticket, or otherwise voting for Republicans in general, especially those who had heard of Moore from his previously well-publicized lawsuit involving his display of the commandments in his courtroom (which is practically everyone).
Also, Moore was not seen as such a fanatic in the 2000 election. Undoubtedly, many of his former supporters who are not fundamentalists have now decided he is not a worthy office holder. The majority of Alabamians are not Christian fundamentalists, despite Baptist being the largest denomination. Not all Baptists are fundamentalists. The persons we keep seing on CNN and elsewhere demonstrating and showing support for Moore and his foolish stance are very much a minority, not representative of the state as a whole, and some of them are literally bussed in from out of state.
This was nothing but a political sideshow and a platform for fundamentalist Christians. It was not the State of Alabama versus the federal government or the First Amendment. It was Roy Moore and his religious puppeteers versus common sense and reason. Think of Moore as a tool, and his political future becomes much more in doubt.
Alabama still has a bad taste in its mouth from the ill-advised election of a Christian fundamentalist preacher in 1986. Guy Hunt, Alabama's first Republican Governor in nearly 100 years, was removed from office in 1993 after being convicted of unlawfully using campaign funds to pay his personal debts. Hunt was the only sitting Governor in the U.S. in the 20th Century to be removed from office for a felony conviction.
Hunt was a huge embarrassment to the state. He also did a lot to reinforce Alabama's bad public relations image as backwards. He was not college educated and he spoke like the hick that he was.
Don't be so sure that Alabama is willing to elect another major embarrassment to the Governor's seat. You can bet that any political opponent of Moore's will beat him to a pulp during the campaign with images of Moore being removed and for defying a federal court order. I suspect it will get his opponent a lot of mileage among Alabama's more educated voters. There will always be backwards, unsophisticated voters who will see everything in terms of black and white, and who will see Moore as a religious martyr.
On the other hand, most of Alabama has had electricity and running water for decades now, and some of us can read too. Believe it or not, not everyone living in Alabama burns crosses and carries a deer rifle in his Chevy pickup truck with a rebel flag hanging in the window.
I think Moore's political viability is poor. On the other hand, he has quite a career opportunity on the lecture circuit. He will remain a martyr to many of his supporters, not just in Alabama, but across the U.S. He just won't be our Governor.
AS