Elections as Redemptions
Today, the special election for Alabama’s Senate seat is being held with Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore in a tight race. A Democrat has not won an Alabama Senate seat in 20 years, but what transpired to lead the state down this path was a whirlwind of political events not unlike the 2016 Presidential elections.
We arrived at this point after the former Republican Senator Jeff Sessions was named Attorney General of the United States. This lead to the interim appointment of Luther Strange, who, backed by President Trump, lost to a twice removed State Supreme Court Justice, Roy Moore. What followed the surprise result were multiple credible sexual assault allegations backed by signed year books, contemporaneous accounts, and other stories related to predation on minors, including being banned from a local mall, and people in Moore’s community noting that he loved “hanging around high schools.”
Doug Jones and Roy Moore should not be a close race. Doug Jones prosecuted the KKK for the murder of children, while Roy Moore very likely molested girls. However, tribal politics is intoxicating, whether you’re liberal or conservative, the temptation to win at all cost can powerfully trigger every psychological trick to allow us to believe that we’re ultimately making the morally good choice, or that our heroes could not possibly do the unthinkable.
A few weeks ago, Senator Al Franken was accused of inappropriate behavior with Leeann Tweeden during a USO tour, Franken apologized and Tweeden accepted the apology, stating she did not need Franken to resign. At the time, I believed Franken had made a mistake owing to his comedic roots, and that it was a “skit” gone wrong, not an indication of the person Franken was. That seemingly plausible explanation, coupled with Tweeden’s belief that he should not resign, lead me to believe an ethics investigation was enough. Examining the situation now, I am sure I was experiencing a moral blind spot, as the likelihood that Franken acted inappropriately with just one woman was remote. I wanted it to be true that it was just one person, one times, during one “skit.” Then came two, then three, then finally eight, with Franken finally, and rightfully, resigning. He should be replaced by a woman, one who deserves the support of Franken’s former constituents and fans alike. With true contrition, and to paraphrase Ana Marie Cox, Franken can become an advocate, but from a less powerful position than he’s currently in now.
Much like Franken, Moore’s supporters are using that same moral blind spot to excuse their support for his behavior. Instead of acknowledging his wrongdoing, more than 80 percent of those in Alabama believe the claims against him are false, despite the evidence otherwise. Grounded in these numbers is both the inherent bias against women in America and the perpetual self-justification our brain is doing to contort ourselves into being forever “good people.” The defensive reaction to being wrong is compounded by how people view self-correction as a weakness. People don’t want to admit they’re wrong, while the media has a responsibility to correct, allowing critics an opening to attack other claims which are credible and to disbelieve them, including the allegations against Roy Moore.
However, elections allow us a moment to reflect on what we do between our beliefs and our actions. The people of Alabama have the ability to use this race as a mirror into themselves and what it means to do the right thing at the right moment, though they may not. Moore may very well win this race, even if it’s an unexpectedly tight one. However, I hope he does not. I hope the people of Alabama use this election as a repudiation of and partial redemption for the 2016 election, and for the ways in which they have been complicit in a culture that harms women.
The possibility of redemption through election may be Democracy’s greatest feature with the ability to learn baked into the process. For Trump voters, each new election is a chance to admit wrongdoing and build a better society. They are not cemented to always supporting the sexist or the racist, they can change if they want to. Redemption is not limited to Republicans, for Democrats, each new election is a chance at redemption for the tacit agreement made in 2016 (among other things) about the usefulness of people like President Bill Clinton, despite “believe all women,” and the abuse of an absurd imbalance of power between the former president and his interns. This agreement to use President Clinton not only carried a moral cost, but a political one, as candidate Clinton was less effective in making her case about sexual assault while President Clinton was giving speeches, on stage next to her, and her surrogate. It was less effective when the conversation turned to his accusers being seated at the debates, and it created another opportunity for excuse, a “well but these women….” No more.
In an ideal world, this would be the new bi-partisan politics: you have a chance to make this right. Both parties have an opportunity to inject repentance into the national consciousness, perhaps slowly, maybe subtly, but it can start with a new limit on what we’re willing to accept for our agendas. Instead of being treated to a Bernie Sanders apologist tour in which Trump voters are the “economically anxious,” each election can represent a chance for something better for this country, a chance to look at our racist history, to look at our sexist history, and to look at how we can strive to be better people.
The chances of this happening are slim, it’s much easier to feed people the idea that they’re doing the right thing and to never point out the hurtful truth that sometimes we make the wrong choice because it’s the easy choice. Our current President is a sexual predator, but our next Senator doesn’t have to be, nor do any of our elected officials. Republicans do not need to be forever tied to President Trump, they can admit wrongdoing. In this election, they can vote for Jones, stay home, or vote for another Republican without the disgusting behavior. The Democrats have a chance at redemption, too. They can support people like Franken’s successor, and they do not have to hoist Bill Clinton into the spotlight when the party is full of diverse talent and gifted speakers in the hopes of eeking out a few more votes, “No majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity.”
