Blessing in Disguise

Just a few months ago the idea of a Democrat winning in Alabama would have been unthinkable. Now it has happened. I have heard some talk about how this portends good news for Democrats in 2018. The only lesson we can take from it is that having accusations of sexual impropriety against you has a detrimental effect on your chances.

The more I think about it, the more I believe it was a blessing in disguise for the Republicans. Of course losing a seat when they already had a thin majority is a huge blow. It will make it much more difficult to pass legislation.
However, consider what it would have been like if Roy Moore had won. Deciding what to do about him would have been extremely divisive. There is no guarantee that they could get his vote. He is a self-righteous grandstander that would have made life miserable for his fellow Republicans.

The impact on next year’s election is even more important. I believe that the main reason Democrats pressed Conyers and Franken to resign was to give them the moral high ground. Last year they relied almost exclusively on demonizing Donald Trump and the Republicans. In addition to being racists, sexists and homophobes, they could add gropers and child molesters to their litany of GOP evils.
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I was surprised that President Trump came out so strongly for Moore. He must believe that he will be fine as long as he stays with the hard-core base. He should realize that the main reason he won the election was because the Democrats had a really bad candidate and a terrible strategy.
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