Charles P. Pierce: I Saw a Miracle in Alabama Last Night

[babylonsister]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14424877/doug-jones-alabama-win/

I Saw a Miracle in Alabama Last Night
Doug Jones knows what his victory means, and who made that victory happen.
By Charles P. Pierce
Dec 13, 2017


snip//

Don’t listen to anyone who warns the Democratic Party not to “overplay its hand.” It is the constitutional obligation of the Democrats to beat Republicans anywhere and everywhere until consistent defeat wrings out the insanity that elected Donald Trump, and that nominated Roy Moore, from a Republican Party gone blind and mad.

All the evidence is that Jones realizes who put him where he is. In his victory speech, he cited only one specific issue that will come before him in his new job.

So, I have a challenge, I have this challenge to my future colleagues in Washington. Don't wait on me. Take this election from the great state of Alabama…where the people of Alabama said we want to get something done, we want you to find common ground, we want you to talk. Take this opportunity in light of this election and go ahead and fund that CHIP program before I get up there. Put it aside and let's do it for those million kids and 150,000 here in Birmingham, Alabama.

Not repealing the estate tax. Not sticking oil derricks in Yellowstone or Yosemite. Healthcare for poor children, which is being held up by one political party, the deranged one in which Jones stomped a mudhole over the past few months.

And it ignores one of the underground sources of energy behind Jones’s appeal—the fact that he convicted the last two murderers who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. Time and again, voters I spoke with mentioned how brave they thought Jones had been in simply bringing that case, let alone winning it. Again, in his victory speech, Jones referred obliquely to his courtroom triumph in the long sweep of Alabama history.

This vote -- this vote, I've said it before, Alabama has been at a crossroads. We have been at crossroads in the past. And unfortunately we have usually taken the wrong fork. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you took the right road…So as we approach this history -- as we approach this crossroads, we have work to do. We have work to do in this state. To build those bridges within this state. To reach across with those that didn't vote for us to try to find that common ground. I'm pledging to do that tonight, but I will tell you, tonight is a night for rejoicing because as Dr. King said, as Dr. King liked to quote, "The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice." Tonight, tonight, ladies and gentlemen, tonight, tonight in this time, in this place, you helped bend that moral arc a little closer to that justice and you did it, not only was it bent more, not only was its aim truer, but you sent it right through the heart of the great state of Alabama in doing so.

I choose to believe that Selma put Doug Jones over the top because I believe that the country owes that particular place a debt that it only has begun to repay, a debt on which it reneged for decades. His entire campaign was based on getting repayment of that debt back on schedule. Indeed, his entire public career has been dedicated to that. He’s smart enough to recognize what a small miracle his victory actually was for the disenfranchised people on whose behalf he fought and won, and decent enough not to turn his back on them.

Alabama. Goddamn.

[Blue_Tires]

1. kick

[mia]

2. Yes! "To reach across with those that didn't vote for us to try to find that common ground."

I'm pledging to do that tonight, but I will tell you, tonight is a night for rejoicing because as Dr. King said, as Dr. King liked to quote, "The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice."

I too, pledge to do this. Thank you for this post, babylonsister!

[DinahMoeHum]

3. ". . .the Republican Party ate the monkey brains 40 years ago. . ."

". . .and contracted the prion disease that has destroyed the party’s higher functions. . ."

[raven mad]

4. I am so proud of all the angels on the ground who worked so hard for this.

I urge anyone who is going to visit the Birmingham area to view the 16th Street Baptist Church (it's beautifully maintained) and go to a worship service for the best gospel singing anywhere. Then break for lunch and hit the Civil Rights Museum.

I've done both, though I haven't lived there in a long, long time. I go back occasionally to see my precious daughter and her "boots on the ground" approach for Democratic politics.

I don't expect her to regain her voice for a week!