America was treated to an unusual opportunity last week. Through the gift of national television coverage, we had the opportunity to see the two national political parties fight for control of the United States Senate. The end result will have an effect on all of us in the outcome of legislation coming out of Washington. The actual battleground was the campaign during the special election to fill a vacant Senate seat representing Alabama. The two individuals representing their parties were the well-known conservative former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore and Doug Jones the Democrat representative, a U.S. District Attorney. By a very small margin, the lesser known (nationally a least) Jones became the first Democrat to win an Alabama Senate seat in over a quarter of a century.
It is interesting that Alabama is known as a "Red State" -- a Republican stronghold which Trump won in a landslide. To explain some of the irony of this situation, the other Alabama senator is Richard Shelby who was originally elected as a Democrat. He switched political parties and has been re-elected as a Republican. However, he refused to support Moore and even voted for a write-in candidate rather than cast a ballot for Moore. Moore had actually won a Republican Primary election over a Republican opponent, Luther Strange. Strange had received President Trump's endorsement during the primary but that seemed to have little effect in the outcome. Moore's political history is certainly controversial to say the least. Roy Moore has twice served on the Alabama Supreme Court and fought an uphill battle over the placement of a statue of the Ten Commandments on state property. He was also well-known for his stand on abortion, gay rights and other controversial issues.
These positions were well publicized prior to the general election. An issue which became almost a national issue on dating was brought up for the state-wide general election when several women accused Moore of inappropriate sexual behavior.
It would make for some interesting conversation to sit down with a group of Arkansans to discuss the factors that apparently affected the outcome of the voting. As we have been told, Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood film producer, has become the poster boy for all things sexual that can be associated with power and money. Moore, however, was accused, but never tried or proven guilty of inappropriate behavior -- including dating teenage girls when he was in his late 20s and early 30s. I don't think the dating in itself, is a crime. However, the accusations seemed to play a big part in the media coverage of the campaign. Today it may be frowned upon, but when I was in my teens it was unusual, but it apparently occurred in two instances in our family. Should unproven and denied accusations defined by the term "sexually inappropriate" be a factor in the political life of a candidate until they are proven valid? As we have seen recently with more focus placed on "'inappropriate sexual activities," several elected politicians have chosen to resign or not seek re-election. Is this a sign of a revolution in the moral expectations of our public political figures or will the focus return to the rich and powerful men in Hollywood, the television industry, etc. as we saw earlier?
Was Moore's stand on the importance of the Ten Commandments statue a good or positive strength in light of our freedom of speech? Or was it seen as a challenge to the separation of government and religion? Did his vocal Conservative political views help or hamper him in the primary? How important were his views on abortion, gay rights, etc., when Democrats were raising money for the campaign? It apparently was an expensive campaign for them.
If this election was for a seat representing Arkansans we would probably have looked more closely at the specific details of each of these events and come up with our own views before we went to the polls. It is interesting at the television coverage leading up to Alabama's decision. The TV coverage delved deeply into Moore's background, but any detailed coverage of Jones seemed limited to more revelations about Moore's background.
A lot of Democratic money was spent to gain a margin of victory that was less than the total write-in votes for an unnamed third individual. We will have two years to evaluate Alabama's decision and come to grips with what we as individuals might have chosen if Arkansas had been making the decision.
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Editor's note: Leo Lynch, an award-winning columnist, is a native of Benton County and has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace.
Editorial on 12/20/2017