About Roy Moore II

Just a quick thought...

The one thing to keep in mind is that we are talking Alabama... not California or New York. They passed an amendment banning gay marriage a few years back with over 80% of the voters voting for it. Talking against transgender rights is no doubt very popular.

In Alabama, the age of consent today is 16. At the time of these allegations, there were places down south where 14 was the age of consent and it wouldn't legally matter if you were 16, 21, 26, or 34. You could have sexual contact and even intercourse with a 14 year old (as wrong as that seems to most of us).

While it might be seen as unusual for a guy in his thirties to pursue a 16 or 17 year old girl, even today it's not technically illegal by the laws of Alabama (much less back at the time of the allegations). Who knows how it is actually viewed (socially) in that part of the country.

Even in traveling back and forth between Minnesota and Seattle Washington, there are serious differences between general attitudes and social formalities.  Technically both the greater Twin Cities area (where I live) and Seattle are liberal. The difference is that one has "Midwestern values" while the other has "Coastal values".

Who knows how much of this is liberal coastal attitudes being projected to people who simply may not see things the same way. Between those who don't necessarily believe the allegations and those who would perhaps see it as a possible alleged mistake, to those who may actually not see much wrong with it (even if they think it's true)... it might not hurt his chances as much as we might think in a special election in a place like Alabama.

All those allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump didn't bring him down. Moreover, many of the same Establishment Republicans made similar demands that Trump step down or that he be replaced when those allegations came out against him. That was a national election. I think we need to caution ourselves as to how much this will actually matter down in Alabama.