Hate-Filled, Irrational Roy Moore Wins Alabama GOP Senate Primary

Moore waving a gun at a campaign rally

I continue to be shocked and appalled over what has become of Alabama since I lived in that state in the late 1970's and early 1980's.   The state has become so insane that George Wallace (who I once met) could not win election if he were to return from the grave. He'd be considered "too liberal" since he did not denounce objective facts and reality.  Now, Roy Moore, a man twice removed from the Alabama Supreme Court because of his refusal to comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings, has won the GOP primary for the special election to replace Jeff Sessions (who looks saner and reasonalby compared to the insane Moore).  Of course, the fact that Moore was ever elected to that Court is a testament as to why elected judges is never a good idea.   Moore holds the rule of law in contempt, is the minion of the most toxic elements of the evangelical scamvangelists, and in my opinion, is probably certifiably insane.   Even more frightening than his primary victory is the reality that Moore will likely win the general elction now that drug laced Kool-Aid seems to have replaced the water supply in broad areas of Alabama.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the horrific primary outcome:

Democrats might be tempted to crack a smile at Roy Moore’s Tuesday night victory in Alabama’s GOP Senate primary runoff. The Republican base is so nuts that even President Trump’s late intervention could not persuade GOP primary voters to support sitting Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), who is merely an extreme Trump supporter. Instead, they had to pick one of the most divisive figures in American politics to represent them.

This is an embarrassment for the GOP and a loss for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whom the White House may shortly blame. If Moore wins the general election, the likely result would be even more chaos in the Senate, with McConnell even less able to marshal his caucus to pass Republican bills. That may not seem so bad to Democrats, for whom a gridlocked Senate may be preferable to a functional one at the moment. Alternatively, Moore’s fringe-ness could help Democratic candidate Doug Jones win the Senate seat that Jeff Sessions vacated to become attorney general.

[L]ike Trump, Moore would make an unusually toxic addition to Washington. A man who brandished a revolver in one of his recent campaign rallies, Moore touts politics that are raw and identity-based, appealing to those who believe that conservative Christian religious culture should infuse the civic institutions that govern all of us.

Moore captured national attention with his campaigns for religious symbols on public property and against same-sex marriage. Support for the former and opposition to the latter are unremarkable in GOP circles. But Moore went much further than others who share his beliefs: As the chief of the Supreme Court of Alabama, he rejected federal court orders based on his apparent view that his personal religious convictions superseded the nation’s civil law. Moore’s refusal to distinguish the public interest from his private agenda was a brazen assault on the country’s core institutions, the likes of which even Trump has not matched.  Moore’s empowerment will encourage zealotry and lawlessness.

Unburdened by a sense of responsibility or institutional tradition, Moore will have opportunity to use the considerable powers that individual senators possess to mangle the process of government. When votes will be needed to keep the government open, pass a budget or respond to a natural disaster, Moore is likely to join bomb-throwers 

Roy Moore stands for anarchy, disorder, disunity and conflict. His platform just got higher, and his power more considerable. Every minute he is in a position of national prominence, the country loses.

Why Hillary Clinton Might Win Georgia

A thoughtful op-ed in the New York Times looks at the demographic changes occurring in Georgia and how, in some ways as has happened in Virginia, the Republican Party's increasingly overt racism and socially reactionary policies are alienating moderate Republicans and independent voters.  It compares Donald Trump's campaign to that of George Wallace which played well with segregationists but which failed to gain support of educated  and more moderate whites.  The history of the Republican take over of the South and how it may now be unraveling is thought provoking.  The lessons will likely be lost on the GOP.   Here are op-ed highlights:

Atlanta — Recent polls show something that has caught even the most optimistic liberals by surprise: Hillary Clinton is tied with Donald J. Trump in Georgia, catching up with him in South Carolina and generally showing strength in traditionally Republican parts of the South. It seems like the Democratic dream come true — demographic changes are turning Southern states purple.

But this story has less to do with the future than the past, and both parties run a risk in misreading it. Mr. Trump’s racially charged hard-right campaign reveals a fault line in Republican politics that dates from the very beginning of G.O.P. ascendancy in the South.

The Republican’s Southern Strategy is one of the most familiar stories in modern American history: Beginning in the 1960s, the party courted white racist voters who fled the Democratic Party because of its support for civil rights.

But things were never quite so simple. Yes, racial reaction fed G.O.P. gains in the 1960s and ’70s. And yes, Barry Goldwater called it “hunting where the ducks are.” . . . . Goldwater, however, maintained that he was going after college-educated white collar professionals who were building the modern Southern economy. 

That was the vision he described in his speech at the Georgia Republican Convention in May 1964. . . . Goldwater had a point. It was Southern businessmen who grew the party in the 1950s.

Yet there were never enough of these sorts of Republicans to put together electoral majorities in most Southern states. A notable exception was Virginia in 1969, where Linwood Holton, the father-in-law of the current Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Tim Kaine, put together a progressive Republican coalition to win the governorship. In almost every other case, however, the G.O.P. had to have the old Dixiecrats, too.

The scene played out dramatically at the Georgia Republican convention where Goldwater spoke. He left for California immediately after his speech and thus missed the political decimation of Georgia’s Eisenhower Republicans. In a six-hour political rout, hard-line segregationists swept them out, along with longtime African-American leaders.

The new order was symbolized perfectly later that campaign season when South Carolina’s Democratic senator Strom Thurmond, the Dixiecrat presidential candidate in 1948, switched parties. Thus was established the political strategy in the South that Republican presidential candidates have followed ever since — melding an overtly conservative, socially moderate economic appeal aimed at the middle class with a politics of rage geared toward disaffected white voters.

Ronald Reagan folded in religious conservatives in the 1980s to replace the generation of Dixiecrats dying off, thus consolidating the powerful mix of cultural reaction and economic conservatism that is modern Republicanism.

Yet this year that mixture may not work. Mr. Trump’s extreme language and divisive policies are alienating moderate Republicans in places like the Atlanta exurbs — where Mrs. Clinton is running nearly even with Mr. Trump. And across the state, polls show a significantly low number of Republicans saying they’ll support their party’s candidate.

Mr. Trump’s campaign most closely resembles the presidential campaigns of George C. Wallace, the arch-segregationist Alabama governor. Indeed, Wallace’s legacy is telling. . . . . he never had much appeal among the new class of suburban whites; the two were like oil and water. So, too, it would seem, are Donald Trump and moderate Southern Republicans today.

Whether or not Republicans hold on to Georgia and South Carolina this year, the lessons they are likely to take away are predictable. Democrats will assume that these states, like Virginia and North Carolina, are part of a long-term liberal trend and push traditional liberal ideas harder in future elections. Republicans will most likely write off Mr. Trump as a one-time phenomenon and not do anything. In doing so, both parties will ignore lessons from the history of the Southern conservative majority.

What might be happening instead is something new in the South: true two-party politics, in which an urban liberal-moderate Democratic Party fights for votes in the increasingly multiethnic metropolitan South against an increasingly rural, nationalistic Republican Party. If that happens, it will transform not only the politics of the American South, but those of America itself.

Alabama Nutjobs Blame"'Atheists, Homosexuals and Tranvestites" for Legal Woes

Even as North Carolina continues to be slammed economically for the passage of North Carolina GOP backed HB2, Alabama Republicans, most notably Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, refuse to acknowledge that it is their own bigoted, backward, ignorance embracing beliefs that are the root cause for their current legal woes.  Indeed, Alabama has regressed and become far more backward politically than it was when I lived there in the late 1970's and early 1980's.   Once again, the catalyst for the descent into lunacy has been the rise of Christofascist in the Republican Party.  A piece in The New Civil Rights Movement looks at the whining of Judge Moore - who in my view belongs in a mental institution - and his equally deranged lawyer, Mat Staver.  Here are highlights:

On Wednesday Liberty Counsel founder and CEO Mat Staver stood before the cameras and droned on in support of his client, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Moore is under attack by the Southern Poverty Law Center and others for his actions surrounding the Supreme Court's marriage decision and his instructions to Alabama magistrates to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The SPLC filed a complaint.

Staver, and later at the podium, Moore claimed the complaint was "politically motivated." At stake: whether or not the complaint leads to official ethics charges by the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama.

But it was their other language and attacks that were especially revealing and offensive.

Staver referred to one of the people who filed the complaint against Moore as an "admitted transvestite."

Moore slammed his critics as "atheists, homosexuals and transgender individuals." At one point he referred to a trans woman as "her," but "corrected" himself, calling her, "him."

At another point, Moore said “transsexualism is a known mental illness,” or was, until 2013, and suggested it still should be classified as such.

“We’re in a serious time in our country," Moore told the few reporters who attended his press conference. "We are at a time in our country when people who just a few years ago would have been ascribed a mental illness, a mental disorder. 

Moore claims that despite publishing an order directing Alabama magistrates to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, “There is nothing in writing that you will find that I told anybody to disobey a federal court order. That’s not what I said.”

That will be for Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama to decide.

What I find ironic is is the fact that in many ways Alabama was more moderate when George Wallace (who I had the opportunity to meet) was governor than it is now under all the "godly" Republicans.  If you want proof that Christofascists are a threat to good government, look no farther than Alabama and North Carolina. 

Trump, Alabama and the ghost of George Wallace

Donald Trump continues to play to the racism that has become one of the strongest undercurrents of today's Republican Party.   Not surprisingly, he found a sizable audience in Mobile, Alabama last night, albeit only about half the numbers Trump had boasted about prior to the event.  I lived in Mobile for four years over three decades ago and in many ways the state is more extreme now than it was back then.  I continue to wonder what is being added to the drinking water.  Perhaps the only good news is that Trumps cavalcade of racism drew a smaller crowd than expected.  Perhaps there is still hope for Alabama.  Here are highlights on the spectacle from Politico:

MOBILE, Ala. — It was immigration, not segregation, that brought some 20,000 southerners — far fewer than predicted — out for Donald Trump on Friday night, but the ghost of George Wallace loomed large.

Wallace, an avowed segregationist, was the last presidential candidate to win electoral votes as a third-party candidate. The threat of Trump doing so, propelled by a hardline immigration stance that many have condemned as racist, looms over the Republican Party now as it did over the Democratic Party then, even as the enthusiasm of his following, for once, fell far short of expectations.

Trump also panned birthright citizenship as a bad deal for the U.S., saying, “We’re the only place just about that’s stupid enough to do it.” Trump’s recently released immigration plan calls for ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, according to the legal consensus, though Trump disputes that point.

Trump invited Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of Congress’s most ardent immigration hardliners who helped the businessman craft his immigration plan, to the podium, where the two embraced.

He also attacked his favorite punching bag, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, on the issue. “ Jeb Bush, ugh,” said Trump, pausing for dramatic effect, before calling the former governor “totally in favor of Common Core, weak on immigration.”

There were also vestiges of Wallace’s Alabama, including on the sample editions of “The First Freedom” newspaper one man handed out to drivers as they entered the parking lot. The paper’s front page included a story about “black-on-white crime in South Carolina” and an editor’s note about German media’s silence about “the actual programs these peaceful ‘neo-nazis’ stand for.”

The vast majority of supporters where white: of over 1,000 people waiting to enter on the east of the Ladd Peebles Stadium at 5 p.m., eight were black.

Marty Hughes, 47, wore a camouflage hat with Confederate flag detailing and said he liked Trump’s stances on immigration and taxes. He called the removal this year of Confederate flags from government property across much of the South “stupidity” and said he didn’t think a President Trump would stand for it.

[T]he city said it expected 40,000 supporters at the rally, but various media outlets estimated that the total was in the ballpark of 15-20,000, leaving the stadium looking less than half full.

Ethics Complaint Filed Against Republican Alabama Anti-Gay Chief Justice

When I lived in Alabama and had an opportunity to meet then Governor George Wallace, Wallace had had the decency to admit the error of his past, segregationist ways.  Indeed, compared to today's Republicans in Alabama, Wallace would be a moderate and were he alive and running for office, he'd have to run again as a Democrat.  If you don't believe me. look no farther than batshit crazy Republican Chief Justice Roy Moore who was previously removed from office only to be later reelected by the Christofascist/Tea Party factions.  Now, Moore has stated that he will not submit to the federal court ruling striking down  Alabama's same sex marriage ban.  The result?  The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed an ethics complaint seeking Moore's removal from the Alabama Supreme Court.  The New Civil Rights Movement has details.  Here are highlights:

After two federal rulings supporting the freedom to marry for Alabama same-sex couples, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore warned he would not succumb to "tyranny!" from the federal government. In a three-page fire-and-brimstone letter sent to sent Republican Governor Robert Bentley, Moore warned "the destruction of that institution is upon us by federal courts using specious pretexts based on the Equal Protection, Due Process and Full Faith and Credit Clauses of the United States Constitution."

Now, the Southern Poverty Law Center is getting involved. The decades-old civil rights group best known for reducing the size and power of the KKK and more recently for expanding the scope of its hate group definition to include anti-gay groups, among others, the SPLC has filed an ethics complaint today against Moore with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama – the same Commission that once before removed Moore from his job.

“Moore is once again wrapping himself in the Bible and thumbing his nose at the federal courts and federal law,” SPLC President Richard Cohen said in a statement. “As a private citizen, Moore is entitled to his views. But as the chief justice of Alabama, he has a responsibility to recognize the supremacy of federal law and to conform his conduct to the canons of judicial ethics.”

The SPLC says its complaint "describes how Moore has committed numerous ethics violations, noting that he is encouraging lawlessness by attempting to assemble a virtual army of state officials and judges to oppose the federal judiciary and its 'tyranny' – the opposite of what is expected from the state’s chief judge."

The SPLC notes additional "violations by Moore, including publicly commenting on a pending case – the federal case that overturned the ban – as well as impending cases: the same-sex marriage cases likely to come before state judges, including Moore, if same-sex marriage is legalized in Alabama."

Moore was removed a decade ago from his job as Chief Justice after refusing to remove a stone monument of the Ten Commandments from the state courthouse.

Last year, Moore told an audience in Washington state that the intent of same-sex marriage is to destroy America. Moore also made headlines last year when he traveled to Mississippi, attacked same-sex marriage, and claimed the First Amendment applies only to Christians.

Moore needs to be removed from the Court and preferably sent to a mental institution! 

Hampton City Council Endorsements

Ever the political activists, the husband and I have been active supporting our preferred local candidates for Hampton City Council.  Local government elections have a huge impact on our daily lives and on our local taxes.  The following are the candidates that we will vote for tomorrow and we hope other Hampton residents will join us in supporting these candidates who have shown themselves to be gay accepting and supporting and who share our vision of what we want Hampton to be:

Mayor: George Wallace.  George has been a friend and ally and he signed the Mayor's for Marriage Equality after former Mayor Molly Ward resigned to take a position in the Obama administration before becoming Virginia's Secretary for Natural Resources under Terry McAuliffe.

Vice Mayor: Linda Curtis:  Linda Curtis is a friend and supporter and she shares the vision we have for Hampton.  Linda is a friend of HRBOr and we hosted an event for her at our home on April 13, 2014.

City Council:

Gay Larue:  Gay is another personal friend who wants to see hampton realize its potential.  She is a strong LGBT ally and with a business background, she understands that government needs to help set the parameters for positive change while helping responsible businesses succeed.  We hosted an event at our home for Gay as well. 

Will Moffitt:  Will Moffitt is another individual who "gets it" and understands that Hampton is a stronger city with a more dynamic future when it puts out the welcome mat for all.  The husband and I have supported Will and hope friends will make sure to vote for Will.

Teresa Schmidt: My last endorsement is for a woman that we got to meet and like on the campaign circuit.  We need leadership that we think out of the box and not simply recycle the same old "good old boy" formula that ceased working years ago.  Teresa strikes us as fitting this bill.

Please make sure to vote tomorrow!  The polls open at 6:00AM and close at 7:00 PM.

Alabama Chief Justice Slams Gay Marriage, Says First Amendment Only Protects Christians

As noted before, I lived in Alabama from 1977 through 1981 and the Alabama of today is far more insane that the one I experienced over three decades ago.  What accounts for the change?  The same thing that has led the Republican Party into crazy land territory:  the rise of the Christofascists who were allowed to hijack the GOP and drive sane people from the party.  Having once met George Wallace while he was governor, Wallace was almost a liberal/moderate compared to what passes as "normal" in the Alabama GOP.  Case in point?  Look no farther than Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore who, given Alabama's elected judiciary, has recaptured the position he was forced from not that many years ago.  Moore's latest batshitery is to claim that First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only protects Christians.  The man belongs in an insane asylum, not Alabama's highest Court.  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at Moore's shocking claims (he also slams gays and gay marriage).  Here are excerpts:

The Chief Justice of the Alabama state Supreme Court traveled to Mississippi to deliver a speech in front of the Pastors for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by a “pro-life” organization known for getting the Magnolia State’s abortion clinics shut down. Judge Roy Moore told the very receptive group that the First Amendment only protects Christians, and expressed his offense that same-sex military couples are now getting married at U.S. military bases.

The Chief Justice went on with his religious attacks, claiming that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution applies only to Christians. “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures on which this nation was founded,” Moore proclaimed.

Moore infamously lost his position as Chief Justice in 2003 after refusing a federal judge’s order to remove the Ten Commandments from his courthouse. A decade later, he was re-installed after running for and winning re-election. In 2012, while running his campaign, Moore went out attacking gay people, claiming same-sex marriage will be “the ultimate destruction of our country.”

Moore also traveled recently to Washington state, fueling rumors that he might again be laying groundwork for a presidential campaign.

Not to sound mean spirited, but I increasingly think that far right Christians - and certainly Judge Moore - suffer from a form of mental illness given their hysterical need not to have anyone or any thing challenge their ignorace embracing religious beliefs.  These folks pose a clear and present danger to constitutional government in America.  

Hampton Mayor George Wallace Signs Mayors for Freedom to Marry Resolution.

As readers may recall, former Hampton Mayor Molly Ward signed the Mayors for Freedom to Marry Resolution back in 2010.  At the time, Ward was only one of three Virginia mayors to have signed the resolution - the others were the mayors of Charlottesville and Alexandria were the others.  Subsequently, Ward resigned as mayor and took a position in the Obama White House before being tapped for a position in Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe's administration.  In the interim, the number of Virginia mayors signing onto the resolution has climbed to eleven mayors.  Now, it just moved up to twelve mayors.  Hampton's new mayor, George Wallace (pictured at left), has signed the resolution after my partner and I asked him to do so and provided him with information.  Other recent cities joining the list are Lexington, Norfolk, Capron, Petersburg, Ashland, Blacksburg, and Fairfax. It goes without saying that Victori Cobb and her fellow Christofascists at The Family Foundation are likely not too happy that the tide is shifting against them..  Here is the text of the resolution:

As mayors of great American cities, we proudly stand together in support of the freedom of same-sex couples to marry. We personally know many gay and lesbian people living in our cities who are in committed, loving relationships, who are active participants in the civic life of our communities, and who deserve to be able to marry the person with whom they share their life.    

We are proud that at its 2009 annual meeting, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously approved a resolution stating that: “The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports marriage equality for same-sex couples, and the recognition and extension of full equal rights to such unions, including family and medical leave, tax equity, and insurance and retirement benefits, and opposes the enshrinement of discrimination in the federal or state constitutions.”  
 
Our cities derive great strength from their diversity, and gay and lesbian families are a crucial part. Studies have shown what we know through our hands-on experience—that cities that celebrate and cultivate diversity are the places where creativity and ideas thrive. They are the places where today’s entrepreneurs are most likely to choose to build the businesses of tomorrow. Allowing same-sex couples the right to marry enhances our ability to build this kind of environment, which is good for all of us.        

We stand for the freedom to marry because it enhances the economic competitiveness of our communities, improves the lives of families that call our cities home, and is simply the right thing to do.  We look forward to working to build an America where all people can share in the love and commitment of marriage with the person with whom they share their life.

A glaring absence? Richmond mayor Dwight Jones who wants to be chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia.