OPINION

An increasing resistance to shame

Roy Moore lost last week, and it felt like an upset.

After all, it was in Alabama, which is an even redder state than Arkansas, and he had the full-throated endorsement of the president of the United States, a man who carried the state by 28 points in the 2016 election. Moore was a familiar and popular figure in Alabama; his opponent was a mainstream Democrat subject to demonization by the forces that demonize mainstream Democrats.

Most people I know thought Moore was going to win his Senate race. But then most people I know thought Hillary Clinton was going to be president.

It's neither my job or inclination to guess what voters may or may not do--I still credit some polls but also understand what a margin of error is, and that if someone has an 80 percent chance of winning that means they'd lose two out of 10 contests. These days, pollsters have a harder time collecting representative samples and some people advocate actively lying to them.

I used to think that people meant it when they said that character mattered to them, that they wouldn't do business or make common cause with people who crossed certain lines. There were people who excused Bill Clinton's behavior, but there were plenty of people politically aligned with him who called for him to resign. John Brummett did; you could look it up. So did I, though I don't think I ever qualified as a Clinton supporter. The Clintons certainly didn't think so.

I used to think that the people who successfully sought political office in this country were some of our best, because bad actors would be eliminated in a Darwinian vetting process. A lot of us joke that the threat of opposition research precludes us from ever running for anything. You might imagine that the adversarial nature of elections coupled with a robust, independent press would deter people with terrible secrets from exposing themselves to scrutiny. But it seems the most megalomaniacal of us are especially resistant to shame.

I used to think we could count on patrician Republicans to do the right thing, to abide by the philosophical tenets of conservatism and not indulge in situational ethics or sell out their country for temporary partisan gains.

I used to think we could count on shirtsleeve Democrats to battle for their constituents, to advocate for those who otherwise would not be represented at the table, the people who could offer them votes but not fat campaign checks. I used to think if we ever found ourselves with a madman in the White House they would do more than use it as an opportunity to fund-raise.

But most of all I used to believe in a common decency that would prevent genuinely awful human beings from being elected to high office, that the basic goodness of ordinary Americans would serve as a firebreak on rampant tribalism. I used to think that the vastness and diversity of America would preclude the election of someone like the current president, who holds in contempt American institutions and the values of most of the people he is supposed to serve.

I used to think that while a clown like Roy Moore might succeed on a local level, that while a demographically homogeneous population might now and again elect an exemplar of their worst instincts to a state house seat or Congress, there were sufficient political antibodies in our system to contain and ultimately reject their influence. Mistakes happen, but there were corrective mechanisms available. And there were things for which Americans would not stand.

And yet Roy Moore's defeat has to be seen as an upset. He could have won, despite credible accusations of pedophilia. He could have won had not black voters been particularly energized, or if fewer voters under the age of 45 have turned out. He could have won had two-thirds of the mothers of Alabama not rejected his candidacy. Moore could have won, and I have trouble seeing his narrow defeat as an encouraging sign.

Alabama nearly elected an ignorant Brooklyn hipster's caricature of a bigoted Deep South crackpot to the Senate. Forget Moore's mall trawling for a second, his waving about of a little pistol at a campaign event, and his bullying of a poor horse on his way to cast his ballot last week. This is a guy who claims Sharia law is in effect in Illinois and Indiana, that Barack Obama wasn't born in Hawaii, that homosexuality probably ought to be illegal, that there's no such thing as evolution, that God was the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, that America was greatest back when slavery was still in effect, that it'd be a good idea to repeal every amendment after the 10th, and that his personal interpretation of God's will trumps the laws passed by our state and federal legislatures.

(He also believed he was in imminent danger of the men under his command in Vietnam rolling a grenade under his cot while he slept. Which maybe was a legitimate fear.)

Some of you believe some of the things Roy Moore believes. But you're probably reluctant to say them out loud in a forum where you're not armored by anonymity and a clever Internet trolling handle. Maybe not.

Anyway, I'm relieved, not encouraged. While there's always a gap between principles and political practice and we shouldn't expect people who seek high office to be saints or selfless (because the very act of putting oneself forward as a candidate ought to be enough to make one suspect), there used to be a bottom as to what we'd accept.

Maybe we're witnessing the last gasp of grumpy white male hegemony, and soon no one will be able to achieve power without appealing to significant numbers of black, brown, gay and female voters. Yet we'll still be contending with nihilistic, opportunist tribalists looking to advance their personal fortunes through public office for a long time.

I don't know that I believe in the common sense and decency of rank and file Americans any more. Too many over-promising hucksters, not enough critical thought. Not enough introspection. Not enough shame.

pmartin@arkansasonline.com

www.blooddirtangels.com

Editorial on 12/17/2017

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