Roy Moore is waiting for God(ot)


Roy Moore still hasn’t conceded that he has lost the Alabama senate race, even though the margin of defeat was 1.5%, well above the 0.5% threshold that triggers automatic recounts and that the Alabama secretary of state John Merrill, a Moore supporter, said that he thought it highly unlikely that a recount would change anything. Then Merrill incorrectly said that Moore could ask for a recount if he was willing to pay for it but legal experts say that Alabama law has that provision only for elections to state offices, not federal ones.

But the reason Moore is not conceding is apparently that he thinks an election is not over until his god, who must be the proverbial fat lady, sings or at least says so. He seems to think that his god would never allow a Democrat to win the election and so that at some point a miracle will occur reversing the outcome. This faith that his god was going to win the election for him may be what led him to take the final week off from campaigning, thinking it was in the bag.

You gotta admire that faith, even as you marvel at the idiocy.

JK Rowling suggests that he lost because god is a black woman, and that demographic went 98% for Jones.

Even Mike Huckabee, who can find a religious justification for pretty much any right wing abomination, thinks that Moore should pack it in, tweeting that “Roy Moore won’t concede; says will wait on God to speak. God wasn’t registered to vote in AL but the ppl who voted did speak and it wasn’t close enough for recount. In elections everyone does NOT get a trophy. I know first hand but it’s best to exit with class.”

But the class train left Alabama evangelicals behind a long, long time ago.

Christian evangelicals are being urged to engage in some soul-searching for their support for Moore, even though turnout among them was low enough to cause his loss, according to Mark Silk.

In 2012, the last election for which we have an Alabama exit poll, 47 percent of the voters identified as white evangelicals and 90 percent of them cast their ballots for Mitt Romney. Yesterday, according to preliminary exit polls , they constituted 44 percent of the Alabama electorate, and 80 percent of them voted for Moore.

In other words, white evangelicals were less motivated to go to the polls than other voters (black and white), and those that did were less likely to vote GOP than in 2012. My back-of-the-envelope calculation is that had they turned out and voted the way they did then, Moore would have won by 2-3 percentage points instead of losing by 1.5.

Christianity Today in an editorial published just before the election said that whatever the outcome, Christians are the big losers in the election.

No matter the outcome of today’s special election in Alabama for a coveted US Senate seat, there is already one loser: Christian faith. When it comes to either matters of life and death or personal commitments of the human heart, no one will believe a word we say, perhaps for a generation. Christianity’s integrity is severely tarnished.

The race between Republican candidate Roy Moore and Democratic candidate Doug Jones has only put an exclamation point on a problem that has been festering for a year and a half—ever since a core of strident conservative Christians began to cheer for Donald Trump without qualification and a chorus of other believers decried that support as immoral. The Christian leaders who have excused, ignored, or justified his unscrupulous behavior and his indecent rhetoric have only given credence to their critics who accuse them of hypocrisy. Meanwhile the easy willingness of moderate and progressive Christians to cast aspersions on their conservative brothers and sisters has made many wonder about our claim that Jesus Christ can bring diverse people together as no other can.

Anyway, as of 5:00pm today, Moore had still not conceded, and his campaign has gone silent. I hope Moore gets a call from his god soon so that the people who worked on his campaign can get on with their lives.

Comments

  1. John Morales says

    Hmm. Perhaps it’s just that he figures he’ll lose less face if he’s defiant unto the bitter end, and can go down as a “fighter”.

    (Faith itself, I highly doubt that)

  2. chigau (違う) says

    Why does he need to “concede”?
    He lost.
    If he won’t vacate, the State Troopers should toss him.

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