I think it has less to do with Alabama voters preferring a molester over a democrat, and more to do with them not believing he is a molester to begin with. That’s my take anyway. I think they feel this is one big sophisticated ruse orchestrated by the left to manipulate the outcome of the election.
While I do not share that view (I believe he is totally guilty), I think it’s important to understand where the Moore supporters are coming from. Distrust of the “the left”/media by those on the right is nothing new, and when you combine that distrust with conveniently timed scandals, you have a recipe for backlash over certain issues.
I just get the feeling that there is more current news on Moore’s creeping, related to those churches who support him and let him have the pulpit. Our church lets all politicians be acknowledge for whatever position they are seeking but it is a rare one allow to speak beyond that.
^ @OHMomof2 Yeah I had read about that. There is likely a split of Alabama GOP voters who feel this is either all a ruse, or believe that the accusations are true but feel that the democratic candidate is too far left for them to vote for.
I haven’t followed the case ultra closely though. Wasn’t there talk of a write-in GOP candidate to replace Moore?
It has already affected the families I know. They’re divided between being repelled at the idea of sending their teenage students to a state that turns a blind eye to molesting teens, and being wary till the election. Alabama had to overcome its reputation and it had done a good job with the Honors college, but it’s now off limits.
I haven’t been able to bring myself to recommend UA and UAH, I just can’t get past it. I wasn’t really aware of him before but this is just impossible… Its not just roy moore. Its roy moore, his defense, and his supporters. There are enough people there who think it’s okay to molest teenagers, I can’t in good conscience advise teenagers can safely go there. I know it’s not rational , absolutely, but I can’t get past it.
I’m really hoping he won’t get elected though.
71 percent of Alabama Republicans say the allegations against Roy Moore are false.
92 percent of Republicans who don’t believe the allegations against Moore say the Democrats are behind the charges, and 88 percent say newspapers and the media are behind them.
A majority of Alabama Republican voters (53 percent) say the allegations against Moore are a concern, but that other things matter more.
Among all registered voters, the president has a 57 percent approval rating in the state. Among Moore’s voters, it is an astounding 96 percent approval.
It appears that UA Tuscaloosa has been somewhat successful in increasing out-of-state interest, since the scholarships have been scaled back slightly (no longer the value of full tuition for 3.5 / 32, but a fixed amount that is slightly less than current full tuition at 3.5 / 33; the value of full tuition needs 4.0 / 36; also the engineering top-up to the value of full tuition at 3.5 / 30 was removed last year). If your observation is true that the Roy Moore publicity gives UA Tuscaloosa negative marketing, then that may mean that they have to reverse course and increase the scholarship generosity instead of scaling it back in future years.
I don’t remember where I read this, and in fact it may be in the comments section of the poll posted above (729), but someone made the comment that if the rest of the world said the sky was blue, Alabama would say it was green.
The next comment said “Hell, we’d paint it green.”
That, dear ones, perfectly captures what it is going on here.
Wouldn’t it be easier to paint the sky brown (instead of green) by turning off the nuclear and natural gas electricity generation plants and replace them with more coal electricity generation?
There’s the scholarships, the football team. But for parents of teen girls, everything is superseded by the idea local people will turn a blind eye to molestation. Will applications decrease? There’s a lot of discussion and numbers may drop from some schools or some areas but I don’t have a broad enough view. It’s too early to tell if it’s noise or signal in all of CA, NJ, NYS, PA, or TX !
Wall Street Journal article on business leaders worrying that Moore will torpedo efforts to bring in more businesses:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/controversies-surrounding-roy-moore-chill-alabama-business-communitys-zeal-for-politics-1512383400?mod=e2tw
“…“Downtown Birmingham is undergoing an unprecedented renaissance,” said Robert De Buys, a Republican in the Birmingham suburbs who is supporting Mr. Jones. “Electing a demagogue like Roy Moore sullies our reputation and renews the association of our state with racism, sexism, and open defiance of first amendment rights. “
Many of those who are planning to vote for Mr. Jones are keeping quiet about it—especially if they want to have any future in the Republican Party. The Alabama GOP has a strict party discipline rule: Any GOP official who publicly supports a Democrat can be banned from running as a Republican for six years.”
@Snowball City, I sure hope there are a lot of “closeted” republicans who are secretly voting for Jones.
My DH, who is an independent that often votes republican, is voting for Jones. I doubt he will be making that publicly known. Maybe there are enough like him…
The Living Way Ministries Church in Opelika, Ala., was bombarded with angry phone calls for hanging a sign outside of its church reading, “They falsely accused Jesus. Vote Roy Moore,” a local station reported…"
edited to add Newsweek’s article: http://www.newsweek.com/church-slammed-comparing-roy-moore-jesus-claiming-both-men-were-falsely-735678
"…The church’s endorsement—which explicitly states that Moore is falsely accused like Jesus Christ, who was accused of treason against the Roman empire—put it in the crosshairs of protesters, who say the church should be stripped of is tax-exempt status because it openly expressed support for a political candidate. According to the Internal Revenue Service, churches and other religious institutions are prohibited from participating in political campaigning or supporting a specific candidate.
Republicans have long sought to overturn that restriction, known as the Johnson Amendment, which barred political actions by tax-exempt churches. It is unclear if the repeal of the 1954 law made it into the final GOP tax bill, but Trump has called repeatedly for its repeal…"
Anyone know if the Johnson Amendment is currently changed in the final bill? It is not like citizens have had a chance to review it…