Democrats are understandably stoked after that high-profile special senate race went the way of Dems in the hard-core red state of Alabama. What a rebuke to Bannon, Trump & Co. Who cares if the loser never concedes?
The end zone spiking continues, as does the gratitude toward black voters for coming out in numbers big enough to offset the usual suspects. And thank you again, Cory Booker and Deval Patrick for heading south to help get the vote out. And, yes, it was encouraging that the more than $12 million raised by Doug Jones was more than twice as much as Roy Moore raised.
And yet.
The overall turnout was 40.46 percent in a race with serious national–as in frightening Trump administration viability and longevity–implications. In a race that could enable Alabamians to undercut their state’s unfavorable, Deliverance-crowd stereotype. In a race couched in liberal-vs.-lecher context, three out of five voters still stayed home to flaunt their American exceptionalism. Plus, the margin of Jones’ victory was only 1.5 percent, hardly a mandate for enlightened self interest.
However it happened, Alabama is obviously–and ironically–better off with Doug Jones as senator. Arguably the country’s most conservative state, Alabama gets a representative who prosecuted the Birmingham church bombers and prioritizes business, education and health care over evangelical hustle, anti-abortion politics and homage to the NRA.
So what just happened? Was it a perfect Democratic storm with a well-timed, child-predator subplot? We’ll know in 2020, when Doug Jones is up for re-election.