It's Roy Moore Day!

Today's the day.  There was less anticipation of our landings at Normandy in WWII.  This is it.  Will Moore win or lose? 

Moore is a sex pervert, a child rapist, a bigot, an antisemite, an Islamophobe, and a liar.  Those are things said about him by news anchors, pundits and commentators as a matter of course.  Christian leaders and apologists have joined in and said he is obviously guilty, he must repent, or worse, he's guilty, a child rapist, and must be defeated. 

On the other side, you have a split.  Some in his supporters have said strange, if not disturbing, things.  They have spoken of the joy they might have had if a DA dated their fourteen year old daughter.  Or they have said even if he is a rapist, what of it?  I guess the Clinton years took their toll and they now assume morals no longer matter for elected officials.

Beyond those, however, are individuals who are concerned that Moore was preemptively condemned, and the quest was merely to find out what he was guilty of.  They note that calls for his stepping down came within 24 hours of the Washington Post article that broke the story.  They note that even if people cite Moore's responses and troubling defenses now, that many had called for him to quit before Moore had responded.  They can't help but guess that his detractors really weren't that concerned about truth or facts or evidence or guilt or innocence.  They despised Moore, and they were willing to use anything - even an accusation based on a half century old incident - to get rid of him.  And they are bothered by that trend.

That seems to be it.  Trump is supporting him, which is more than Trump did in the primary runoff.  Some are painting this as an attack on Trump, or a defense of Trump.  That happens.  How the results are covered will be based on who is doing the reporting.

All in all, we'll have to wait and see.  There is little hope for Moore or his supporters.  If he loses, he loses.  If he wins, they'll be accused of supporting a child rapist, a bigot and a Nazi. 

For me, if he wins, there will likely be an investigation.  Then we can find out if he is guilty.  Back in the day, I didn't support Bill Clinton being torpedoed just because he was accused of things.  I felt some evidence of wrongdoing was needed.  Of course when it was shown that he did have an affair with an intern in the Oval Office, and then lied under oath to cover it up, I believed it was good enough to impeach.  Not because of the sex - which was said to be outside the realm of morals and standards - but because of the obstruction and the perjury. 

Nonetheless, I think if Moore is elected, we'll get to the bottom of things.  Possibly.  If there is an investigation, we'll have a chance to vet the accusers and examine the evidence.  I doubt it will change minds, but at least it will be something close to due process.  If he loses, however, and in a year nothing more is said, no further accusations come out, and nothing is pursued, then I fear we will have seen a McCarthy like character assassination endorsed and supported by our press, our political establishment and, yes, even our religious institutions.  And that cannot be good for our future.