Roy Moore is right, but not for the reason you think

Roy Moore is right.

On Wednesday night he said the following: “The good people of Alabama, not the Washington elite who wallow in the swamp, will decide this election.”

{mosads}I couldn’t agree more. Elections are the essence of democracy. The citizens of Alabama should make this decision — no one else. If Roy Moore continues to defy everybody and stay in the race, that is his right.

Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), wants him out. He has said that Moore is “obviously unfit.” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says Moore “should step aside.” 

The Republican National Committee has withdrawn from a joint fundraising committee with Moore’s campaign. The Republican senatorial committee has done the same.

You can’t pick a more reliably Republican state than Alabama. Donald Trump got 62 percent of the vote there. The last time a Democrat (Howell Heflin) was elected to the U.S. Senate from the state was 1992. Both houses of the state legislature are overwhelmingly Republican.

Maybe this sums it up best: The last time the state voted for a Democrat for president was 1976, and it was fellow Southerner, Jimmy Carter.

Let me make this abundantly clear: In no way am I approving or excusing Moore’s alleged conduct. If it is true, it is reprehensible. But the voters of Alabama are entrusted with this decision. They and only they are the ultimate deciders.

They have the power, and it is up to them to determine whether or not they want to send Moore to the U.S. Senate.

There are two recent cases that demonstrate why we should not underestimate the “good sense” of the voter.

In 2012, in Indiana and Missouri, two Republicans lost elections they most likely would have won by saying stupid and highly damaging things.

Richard Mourdock, the Republican candidate in Indiana, when asked about the right to an abortion even in case of rape said: “Life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.”

That comment led to Mourdock’s defeat.

In Missouri, the Republican candidate was Todd Akin. Akin was asked in an interview if a woman should be allowed to have an abortion if she was raped. Akin said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

That comment caused Akin to lose by 16 points.

Moore’s name cannot be removed from the ballot. The election is on Dec. 12. 

The Democratic candidate is one of extraordinary credentials. Doug Jones is a former U.S. Attorney. He successfully prosecuted two Ku Klux Klan members who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, where four little black girls perished.

He wants to keep his campaign an “Alabama experience.”

Jones has gone to great lengths to distance himself from the “Washington elite.” On Tuesday night a $500 per person cocktail party was held on his behalf in Washington, with a ton of National Democrat Party heavy-hitters in attendance. He declined to travel to Washington for it.

Jones, in his TV ads, does not loudly proclaim his Democrat party affiliation. He has people who identify themselves as Republicans saying they are voting for Jones.

To top that off, the ads tell the viewer, “Don’t vote for the party. Vote for the man.”

In the final analysis, Alabama’s voters have to take in all the information and decide for themselves. The only entity that seems to still be supporting Moore is the Alabama Republican Party. 

If Moore should be elected on Dec. 12, the party has the legal right to withdraw its support and not certify his election. I don’t believe the state party should exercise that right either. That would be usurping the power of the individual voter.

Moore could be elected and the U.S. Senate would have to seat him. By its rules, the chamber could then expel him with 67 senators (two-thirds) voting to do this.

I think that would happen. The votes are there. Every Democrat and 19 Republicans would do the deed. This expulsion would send a clear signal from the leadership of the Republican Party that they will not allow Steve Bannon to select their nominees.

Democracy is messy. The principle that the voters will judge, and then decide, should not be tampered with.

The voters of Alabama should be free to exercise this power and the verdict should rest with them. If they decide to “vote for the man,” Doug Jones — well, what a triumph for democracy.

It would also say to the nation that Alabamians are not what you think they are and, when faced with a choice, they are capable of making the right choice.

Mark Plotkin is a contributor to the BBC on American politics and a columnist for The Georgetowner. He previously worked as the political analyst for WAMU-FM, Washington’s NPR affiliate, and for WTOP-FM, Washington’s all-news radio station. He is a winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing.