A New Hope

A big congratulations to members of the real Republican Party as they celebrate the loss of the hijacked Republican Party candidate in yesterday's special Senate election in Alabama.  The contemptible Roy Moore loses a seat that had been held by the GOP for 25-years.

When faced with a decision between two bad options on the ballot, many real GOP members either stayed home--or wrote in a name of a candidate that would actually stand for their beliefs.  (Or knowing Alabama--they likely just put in Crimson Tide Head Coach Nick Saban on their ballot).  The national political experts likely won't do any "deep diving" on the results of Tuesdays election--because a Democrat won--but if they did, they will likely find that Doug Jones' support was marginally higher than the average Democrat in Alabama.  Roy Moore lost because many Republicans simply didn't vote.

The real reason for celebration for those in the real GOP is that voters have rejected a candidate backed by the repugnant Steve Bannon.  The so-called "political strategist" turned an election that Republicans with Jeff Sessions on the ballot won with a 92-percent majority just a couple of years ago into a 1.5% loss last night--even with the backing of his other puppet candidate: President Donald Trump.  Coming into this special election, Bannon had been talking big about challenging the "Republican Establishment" with primary opponents in races across the country next year.  That would have pitted real Republicans against crazy, fringe candidates that would waste resources and force the party to continually confront the dark elements that we thought had been banished to irrelevancy centuries ago.

I'm sure Bannon and Trump will rail against "the media" for destroying the character of Roy Moore (if that was even possible) but deep down they have to know that their victory in 2016 was a fluke--the perfect combination of over-the-top free media exposure early in a crowded GOP primary field, the worst possible Democratic candidate on the other side of the ticket and a general populace disgusted by the two choices they were presented--and that the tide within the Republican Party is turning against them in a big way.

It's fitting that the new Star Wars movie comes out the same week that Bannon, Trump and Moore go down to defeat--as there is now a  New Hope for a  return to normalcy in the real Republican Party.