Roy Exum: Why Not Good People?

  • Sunday, December 10, 2017
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

It makes no difference if you are a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative – I believe we will all come up short this Tuesday when Alabama announces the winner of a special election for a new Senator. On one hand you have Roy Moore, a controversial judge who has been bounced off the state’s Supreme Court twice, painted as a pedophile by numerous accusers, and just observed the last time America was great was when we had slavery.

On the other is Democrat Doug Jones who is being called “The Hillary Clinton of Alabama.” His views on abortion, the Second Amendment, and his liberal stance run counter to a very conservative state. In Alabama being a Democrat, according to one nameless radio guest, “is worse than being a Muslim.”

So my biggest question is based on what I see looming on the nation’s political horizon all across the country: Where are the good people? When has our choice of candidates ever been as lousy?

There is no way that Roy Moore or Doug Jones should be in a runoff. The state of Alabama has thousands of men and women with character, integrity and credence who are better-suited. But political parties are ruining America with their favorites worse than I can ever remember. Today’s rule is “money talks” and paying your dues with allegiances to state handlers is also quite expensive.

Nationally, the Republican “establishment” is growing more and more repulsive by the day under Mitch McConnell’s embarrassing leadership. That is why “the machine” appointed Luther Strange to take Jeff Sessions’ Senate chair. President Trump appointed the 70-year-old from Selma as the nation’s attorney general and the party choice as the next Alabama senator was announced in November, 2016 by then-Gov. Robert Bentley.

Bentley then got involved with a married woman, embarrassingly so, and Strange was caught in the cross-fire, steadfastly refusing to indict the Governor. When Bentley finally resigned with criminal charges, Strange took a public thrashing in the media and in September Judge Moore beat him by a 55-45 margin.

It is well known that McConnell, the Senate Majority leader, and Judge Moore have quite an adversarial relationship and it is widely rumored that if Moore is elected, he will immediately go before the Ethics Committee. If that is the case, why has Trump spent all weekend stumping for Moore? The Republicans must keep control of the Senate and one scenario is for the Senate to toss Moore, giving Alabama Governor Kay Ivey the ability to appoint a new Republican to the seat.

That’s my point. How can you trust political manipulators? On Friday one of the women who used a signed yearbook as proof Moore dated her while she was in high school and he was much older, admitted she herself had written some of the notes attributed to Moore. Never mind her accusations were on primetime TV with her breaking down in front of the cameras. What's true and what’s not? This revelation – and the fact there is not one shred of proof that Moore ever sexually harassed any female, is swinging support back in a way some say will win the day on Tuesday.

* * *

In Tennessee the Republican frontrunners in the 2018 race are two current Congresswomen -- Diane Black for Governor and Marsha Blackburn for Senate. Both have taken an active role with other Republican representatives in Washington to safeguard the loathsome “Dirty Lick” segment of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. A majority of Senators and members of Congress are co-sponsors of the proposed PAST Act legislation that would reform the cruel and sadistic soring of Tennessee Walkers. Both Black and Blackburn have accepted thousands in campaign contributions from the miscreants instead.

This year’s winner of the World Championship is still on probation after violations were found by USDA inspectors and Blackburn’s behavior has been despicable in recent years. In my view, Diane Black and Marsha Blackburn are among the “worst people” in Tennessee and their blatant misdeeds to protect “The Big Lick” will go down as the darkest days in Tennessee politics.

royexum@aol.com

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