Because everything in politics now is contentious, important, and aggravating, the Senate special election in Alabama was easily the most well-covered special election to fill a vacant Senate seat in modern American history. The stakes were pretty high: In the unlikely event that Democrat Doug Jones won, the Republican majority in the Senate would fall to 51 to 49, which would make it that much more difficult to pass tax “reform” and ban Obamacare forever. And yet somehow, when the dust settled, Jones beat Moore by about 20,000 votes, nothing short of a blue miracle in deep-red Alabama.
Professional and amateur pundits have already composed a thousand think-pieces trying to pinpoint how a state that went all-in for Trump in 2016 (he beat Hillary Clinton there by 28 points). Conventional wisdom suggests that things like a massive, Democratic get-out-the-vote operation, or how a whopping 97 percent of African-American voters supported Jones, or how some people just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Moore because he’s preyed on teenage girls and got banned from a shopping mall for doing just that. But things like “facts” don’t much matter when you’re sad, or don’t realize that the guy you supported was a very bad man and a very bad candidate.
Moore’s fussy, sore-loser supporters are now blaming everyone and everything for Moore’s loss. There’s no way people simply didn’t vote for him, they feel; clearly, the election was a sham, or the fix was in from those fat-cats in Washington. It was a pouty-faced scene at Moore’s victory election night party in Montgomery, Alabama.
A supporter named Chanel Rion put the blame on Mitch McConnell. “It leads back to him,” Rion told The Huffington Post. “This room is gonna be walking out with a vengeance. We know who’s responsible.” Rion’s fiancé, a Missouri politician named Courtland Sykes said it’s a conspiracy, man. “This is 100-percent an effort by the Washington establishment to keep Roy Moore out of it. If they can put a Democrat in office in Alabama, in 2017, to replace Jeff Sessions, ever after Donald Trump won by a landslide in 2016, that means they can replace anyone they want. We don’t have an honest republic if this can happen.”
Another guy they want to blame is Richard Shelby, Alabama’s other senator, a Republican, who last weekend publicly denounced Moore, saying he voted for somebody else because the GOP “can do better.” At Moore’s party, one supporter mentioned that he wanted to track down Shelby, or an “establishment” guy like him and then “punch in the face.”
A self-described conservative student at the University of Alabama named Ben Smith blames turncoat Republicans, who for some reason wanted to distance themselves from Roy Moore. “What didn’t help is Republicans jumping ship during Roy Moore’s greatest time of need. That destroyed any party unity we had left.”
Pro-Moore folks are also pointing fingers on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Todd_W_Haines/status/940791849169620994
https://twitter.com/tinastullracing/status/940781471282991104
The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/GayRepublicSwag/status/940799210181537792
Some of Moore’s detractors weighed in, too.
Tonight Alabama is sending a powerful message across the country. The American people will fight back against bigotry, hate &, yes, pedophilia – & reject a man totally unfit to serve in the US Senate. Republican, Democrat, Independent – on this, there will be no compromise.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 13, 2017
Decency wins
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) December 13, 2017
Thankfully, today enough Republicans chose country over party. Tomorrow we must redouble our efforts to support candidates worthy of the office they seek.#TwoPaths
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) December 13, 2017
Suck it, Bannon
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) December 13, 2017
God don’t like ugly.
— Don Lemon (@donlemon) December 13, 2017
This is the worst thing to happen to Roy Moore since mall security confiscated his shoe cameras
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) December 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/940934792836771840
https://twitter.com/RichardVeii/status/941018002845081600
"Roy Moore: you can't win a mall!"
— Megan Amram (@meganamram) December 12, 2017
Roy Moore liked this night when it was much younger.
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) December 13, 2017
Roy Moore lost because his girlfriends were too young to vote for him
— Orli Matlow (@HireMeImFunny) December 13, 2017