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So as someone who actually knows the judge, as well as his campaign, I decided to clarify a few things.
1) This was a Judge Roy Moore win, not a Mitch McConnell loss.
Candidates win elections, not ideas or grievances. Ideas and grievances can shape an environment, but the right candidate is still required to take advantage of that environment. Though many on the Right and Left are trying to peg Judge Roy Moore as a vehicle for anti-establishment angst and chicanery, that doesn’t come close to telling the full story. Judge Roy Moore is not an insurgent candidate.
He was not a neophyte. He previously won statewide in Alabama — twice — the prestigious office of chief justice of the state supreme court. He was the best known and most respected candidate in the race. His record of principled activism at the cost of his own career has made him a hero to Alabama conservatives.
Therefore, he’s not the alt-right caricature currently being peddled by those threatened by him. Quite the contrary; Moore has spent his life dedicated to the bedrock conservative principles of faith, family, and (then) freedom that many of the decadent and profane alt-righters vehemently despise.
Judge Roy Moore is the very conservative your atheist college professor warned you about. It’s Moore’s brand as the antithesis of what McConnell’s ilk stands for that won day.
2) The disdain for McConnell, the face of the Swamp, absolutely added to the magnitude of the victory.
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3) Good guys do finish first.
The last few years of American politics haven’t exactly been inspiring. Yet here is Judge Roy Moore, the man many of the so-called “smart set” kicked to the curb and stabbed in the back for more than a decade as he stood up to judicial tyranny, likely on his way to winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in the general election in December. And Moore did it without compromising a single thing……..
4) Name ID matters most.
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Because Moore had won statewide twice, he had a substantial name ID advantage over Mo Brooks. And we saw that play out in the initial primary, when Brooks was done in by McConnell’s misleadings, but Moore could withstand them since voters already knew him. The lesson here, for those seeking to oust more Swamp creatures in upcoming primaries, is that if the candidate lacks name ID, it probably doesn’t matter how principled he is — he’s toast.
That name ID went a long way toward Moore not only beating an incumbent senator in a primary, which is a rare feat by itself, but also overcoming a sitting president’s endorsement against him. Which brings me to my final point…
5) “Better than Hillary” isn’t a suicide pact.
It’s impossible to avoid noticing that everything and everyone attached to President Trump’s base supported Judge Roy Moore, except for President Trump himself.
Trump went all in for Luther Strange: tweeting for him several times, holding a rally for him just days before the vote, and then sending Vice President Pence as a follow-up. And yet, there were Sarah Palin, Steve Bannon, Sean Hannity, and others going to Alabama to campaign for Judge Roy Moore and/or endorsing him.
This confirms that “better than Hillary” is not a suicide pact. And though the cultic element within Trump’s core support is troublesome and impossible to ignore, it turns out Trump’s base is driving Trump — it’s not Trump driving his base. In fact, Strange actually under-performed his polling following Trump’s campaign visit — there was no Trump bounce at all.
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- Discussion
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My analysis of what happened last night in #ALSen and @MooreSenate dominant win.
For @CR https://t.co/B07NNok2tj
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) September 27, 2017
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