The Deplorables

Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat during the campaign when she uttered the unforgettable words, ""To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables," Clinton said. "Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it." This provided a great deal of red meat to the Trump campaign and its chip-on-the-shoulder backers, many of whom added the word "Deplorable" to their Twitter handles, some of which belonged to actual humans, as opposed to Bots generated by the Russian FSB's political consulting arm which was busy attempting to disrupt the election.

While I --at the time--questioned the political wisdom of her statement and attributed it largely to catering to her own "identity politics run amok" base, I agreed with the gist of the statement. After all, Trump's supporters had at that point already: cheered him as he urged violence against protesters at his rallies; mocked a handicapped reporter; listened to him boast of serial sexual assault; insult a war-hero former prisoner of war; and generally behave in a manner that at least some of them would not accept from their child. Their continued support for him was deplorable. They were, deplorable.

We are now in the midst of the great Roy Moore scandal, in which a blatantly Trumpist, cro-magnon, represents the once proud GOP in the race to replace the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he joined the administration. Moore is proceeding with the backing of the Deplorable Obergruppenfuhrer Steve Bannon and the full support of the President (and sadly much of the establishment GOP). He has been accused of all manner crimes by four women who tell remarkably similar stories about his lechery (and sexual assault) when they were teens and he was in his early thirties.

I don't know if the stories are true. A major US newspaper has done exhaustive reporting with over 30 sources using four women's stories who DID NOT COME FORWARD TO THEM--but who the investigative reporters discovered. Roy Moore has a right to defend himself against these accusations, and his supporters have the right to question the facts of the accusations and their timing. Some of that is happening, and it is natural.  But this?

Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener, who called me back, says he doesn't believe the allegations are true, but if they're true he won't support him - but, at the same time, it's not "forcible rape."

"I know that 14-year-olds don't make good decisions," he adds.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 10, 2017

And this?

"Other than being with an underage person - he didn't really force himself," Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener tells me. "I know that's bad enough, but I don't know. If he withdraws, it's five weeks to the election...that would concede it to the Democrat."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 10, 2017

Or maybe this?

Alabama Covington County GOP Chairman William Blocker tells me Democrats convinced these women to tell a fake story to damage Moore.

I told him the 14-year-old became a Trump voter.

"That's the typical background or profile of somebody they would be using for that," he said.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017

Or then there was my favorite--where a defender pointed to Jesus and Mary's relationship to defend Moore's behavior. 

You see--what I just laid out was a group of GOP officials in Alabama who simply don't care that whether their man was a serial child molester. This is deplorable. This is exactly what we've seen all along from Trumpkins with their man too. It doesn't matter what he says. His past conduct--no matter how disgusting, is acceptable because the stakes are so high and America's future is at stake. It is the sign of a declining civil society, and it is the sign of a polity that is sick in its soul.

The bottom line is that if you support Roy Moore or Donald Trump out of some skewed sense of nationalism or a fear that the country is going down the tubes--the country is already lost.