The Commish
American democracy was saved by the Black voters of Alabama and Black women. The South continues to be threatened by racist, sexist politics of men like Roy Moore, who represents what’s worst about American politics. The politics of hate, the politics of intolerance.
The irony is that Republican leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell viewed his candidacy as troublesome. If Moore was a joke in a string of jokes leading up to the White House, the joke is on us, and it’s a bad joke. Last November, more voters said they wanted Hillary Clinton; we instead elected one who many said was a joke. The Donald Trump election has proven that we need to take jokes more seriously.
They say leadership is from the top, and so does misguidance. The misguidance of the past 10 months leaves us all shaking our head. Trump, the king of Queens, New York, has governed like a real-life Archie Bunker on steroids. If this is an All in the Family television show, you can vote me off this island. Trump’s doubling down in the face of political attacks is not good. The “Celebrity in Chief” has bullied what was once the Grand Old Party into a cowering display of Republican submission to decency and self-respect.
Trump talks about draining the swamp. America’s version of the swamp monster came in the form of former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Moore. America has become a country that puts the safety of children below the pursuit of power. This resulted in the Republican campaign to elect a horseback riding, gun toting pedophile in to the United States Senate. Trump’s disrespect for women had a Southern strategy. The strategy has worked before, “say it, do it, deny it.”
The Republican Party, which used to push “family values” down America’s throat like medicine, is today sick. The Republican Party today places decency at the trash heap of democracy. Their nominee, Moore’s, disturbing behavior targeting teen age girls still made him the favorite of the Republican Party. The Republican Party’s quest for victory is more important than the quest for justice or the honor of a high school cheerleader.
Democracy elected a president that is more self-styled monarch than the elected head of state of a proud country. I have concluded that America indeed has lost its way. The Republican Party of the Trump era put votes over God. This Republican Party chooses conservatism over morality.
Doug Jones upset the political pundits and put down a predator. Jones, who persecuted Ku Klux Klan members who killed four little girls in a Birmingham church, was swept into office by Black votes, and primarily those of Black women. American democracy like it was in 1965 turned to Black voters in Selma in 2017. Black women voters saved America from the embarrassment of electing a pedophile who has hurt little girls in the past; they couldn’t allow Roy Moore to continue his campaign of pain on America.
Black women who have endured pain stood up as always. Whether it is in Selma, Alabama, or Dallas, African American women are standing up for justice. The women that packed the Alabama polling places demanded with their votes that no woman be disrespected. In Dallas, African American women are filing for elected office in record numbers. Their voices will be heard as they were last Tuesday.
Ed Gray is the host of The Commish Radio Show on Saturdays 1-3 p.m. on fbrn.net and Inside Texas on WFAA TV 8. He can be reached at eegray62@att.net.