Roy Moores stunning defeat reveals the red line for Trump-style politics

[Soph0571]

There’s no sugar coating the stunning defeat for Donald Trump and his cronies in Tuesday’s senate contest.

There’s no accusation of fake news that can cover the tracks of the disastrous results for the president – and for his supposedly populist politics – little more than one year after his own election.

There’s no comeback for his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who declared war on the Republican establishment by stumping for a toxic candidate like Roy Moore.

This wasn’t a marginal contest in some familiar swing state, a typical bellwether of political trends. We’re talking about Alabama. One of the most Republican states in the union where there’s a long and violent history of rejecting outside influences, and anything that smacks of progressive politics.

If Trumpism has any future, any constituency moving forward, it should be thriving in Alabama. For months we have all endured the endless reporting from Trump Country where the president’s loyalists say their love of the blowhard-in-chief is undiminished.

Instead, Alabama – the state whose love of segregation gave us some of the greatest flashpoints in the civil rights movement – has drawn the reddest of red lines. There are still limits to what voters consider acceptable behavior, and Roy Moore is on the wrong side of them.

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/roy-moore-defeat-trump-future-republican-party-trumpism|

[Bob Loblaw]

1. The red line in Alabama

is pedophilia. Nothing more, nothing less.

[underpants]

2. I agree

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029975364

Trump lost TWICE in Alabama

Strongly backed Strange. Lost.
Strongly backed Moore. Lost.

As we've seen elsewhere the Repubs nominated from a bubble

Like with THE COOCH in Virginia (they changed the rule to caucus not primary) instead of Bolling 4 years ago they nominated Moore instead the safe smart bet of Strange.

You could make the case that Trump also was nominated from their own bubble. He was a constant on Fox & Friends for years prior to his run. He won the early races with 25-30% and then just got rolling. Fox actually cancelled a debate because he wasn't going to show up.

Frankly I'm still shocked that Jones won in Alabama, Trump and the RNC/GOP should be too. There's no WAY a Dem should win a statewide race in Alabama.

[tanyev]

3. Maybe Bannon's bragging about his superior Georgetown and Harvard education

over Joe Scarborough's U of Alabama education at a Moore campaign rally was the final straw.