Alabama is in the news a lot lately. The other night I heard a woman state, emphatically, that “Washington is not going to tell Alabama what to do!”. I’m guessing she doesn’t want any advice from the other 49 states in the nation, either.
She was referring to a special election taking place that could send controversial candidate, Roy Moore, to the senate. Roy Moore is an ultra conservative, religious, republican, with a contentious past as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, who currently stands accused of soliciting multiple young women during his years as district attorney. Mr. Moore denies all charges. He is running against Democrat, Doug Jones, for the senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, current United States Attorney General and old school troglodyte.
I wouldn’t dream of telling Alabama what to do even if their state’s bottom of the barrel statistics on poverty, obesity, diabetes, infant mortality, and gender-based wage disparity do seem to indicate that some strong maternal guidance is warranted. In fact, despite a population that’s more than 50% female, Alabama is just about the last place you want to be if you are a woman. This is surprising given that Alabama is one of the most religious states, according to this Gallup poll. Or maybe it’s not surprising. Is it me or does it seem to be a trend that the most religious states in the country are the worst states for women and children? That seems odd, doesn’t it? But hey, it’s working out quite well for Roy Moore, and maybe that’s the way Alabama likes it.
No one is telling you what to do, Alabama; far be it for the rest of us to take an interest in who you send to the senate because what could go wrong there, right? We’ll just pray you vote in your own best interests, for once. But even if you don’t, all us libtard elite blue states will still be here, willing to pay higher taxes so that your poor, which far out number ours, by the way, can also receive healthcare, fair wages and a decent public education. We’ll continue to vote for experienced politicians who want to help raise you up from the bottom of the barrel instead of stepping on your heads to climb out of it. And yes, you just keep going to church and voting for the guy who says he’s against abortion and birth control and yet, somehow, also against Medicaid and welfare. After all, who cares how people are treated after they’re born.
We’ve got your backs, Alabama. We know it’s a thankless task.
Chicken out
Chicken's Consigliere 
Brilliantly said, Chicken. The correlation between religion and misery seems to happen far too much of the time – throughout history and still going strong right now.
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Thanks Jenny. I’m not anti-religion. Far from it. I just get frustrated with the hypocrisy sometimes, not to mention the way it’s used politically to manipulate people.
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Very well said!
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Thank you, Miss Judy
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Fortunately, Alabama, I am speechless.
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I hope you get your voice back soon:-)
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“…What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the union
to help you along
What’s going wrong? ”
-Neil Young
My friend Sara is in Huntsville with her parents again, and I felt bad for her at first, then I heard Blue Gal in The Professional Left podcast describe Alabama from the point of view of someone who lived there for fifteen years and had all three of her children there. She says that Huntsville is comparable to Austin but since nobody knows that, housing is still much less expensive.
She says that large cities are very similar no matter where they are on the red/blue axis, but once you get outside of them in the south, be careful.
I was struck by the story of the Trump voter who said that if Jesus came down off of the cross and said Trump is with Russia they’d have to ask Trump about it first.
I’m not religious, but I did read that book a long time ago, and I seem to remember Jesus being all about helping the poor, not cutting off their health insurance.
But I won’t diss all religious people, either. Jimmy Carter is religious, and he is still out there building houses for people in his nineties.
Bishop William Barber is an Evangelical (why does that name always make me think of a tall, skinny bird?) and he makes more sense than the whole of the GOP and all of their supporters.
So I can’t blame it on religion. Lots of other stuff I will cheerfully blame on religion, but there are too many examples of good religious folks for me to do so in this case.
Bishop Barber says that white, Republican evangelicals aren’t evangelicals at all, but conservative religionists instead, but I don’t blame him for not wanting to be lumped in with them.
I did like Doug Jones ad in which he points out just who has a history of jailing people who hurt little girls, and perhaps he has a chance, but I’m not that optimistic about it.
It kind of looks like a cult, in that the members are conditioned to support it even in the face of contrary evidence, and the amount of themselves they have invested in it makes them reluctant to break away from it, even when it is doing them obvious harm.
I remain cautiously optimistic that the women are going to save us from this dark time. EMILY’s list has reported that they have had more than 20,000 inquiries from women about how to run for office this year.
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HI Doug, seriously, Neil Young? I will check that out. I know that if Sara is your friend, she’s great. I’m sorry to sound like I’m judging people from Alabama. That’s not quite it. It is more this one statement, which seems to be a battle cry, that struck a nerve, and the fact that Roy Moore is probably guilty AF and is still going to win. I agree that big cities are basically the same everywhere and I think small towns are the same pretty much everywhere. We have civic pride we want our children to thrive and do better than we did even if we did well but especially if we didn’t. I also believe that most of us do not want others to suffer. That’s what is hard to understand and reconcile, sometimes, with the stance against healthcare and welfare. I don’t understand how letting people suffer teaches them anything except how to suffer, while helping them puts them in a position to pay it forward.
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Neil Young has just posted his archives online for free streaming at bitrates that are as fast as your connection can handle. They do sound good.
I don’t really understand greed among the wealthy either. I would have an easier time understanding it among the poor, who don’t have enough to begin with and thus experience harm over the loss of small and simple things, but that’s not where you find it.
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Hi Doug-Completely agree. I have a theory that the poor are more empathetic with those in need and so they do more to help others. Could be the rich, especially ones like Donald Trump, who inherit money, assume that anyone can gain access to what they have if they work hard enough. They mistakenly (sometimes) credit their own financial prowess for their success. And even if financial success is all down to their hard work, they may have other gifts that they take for granted like the benefit of good parenting, a clear, agile brain, no predilection for addiction, no sexual or other abuse in their past, love, nurturing, a good education….people take those for granted, especially intellect and the ability to think clearly. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wish I was a bit more intellectually capable.
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