Alabama will keep working to ‘drain the swamp’ despite Moore’s loss

Even though prognosticators have spent months describing the demise of the Republican Party and conservative principles, the results in the Alabama Senate race are still surprising.

We shouldn’t put much stock into what they were saying because these were the same people that still have a difficult time accepting the results of Donald Trump’s 2016 victory (and that includes those actually “in” the Republican Party). I just kept reminding myself that these people just look at politics differently than we do here in Alabama.

However, it appears that the media and mainstream Washington — what President Trump aptly dubbed the “swamp” — have won this particular round. From the reports, it sounds like the political class on both sides of Washington is acting as though they work at the Democratic National Committee.

{mosads}The Washington establishment was successful at distracting from the real issues of this election. Calling Roy Moore a racist and continually accepting all the accusations against him without any consideration for his side of the story were concerning to say the least. The political speech focused everywhere except on what matters most in an election: the issues. Those include the taxes, healthcare, jobs, the economy, and so on.

Yes, voting for Moore was a difficult decision, even for me. Putting my name and reputation out there for someone facing some awful accusations was a risk I took in order to support conservative principles. That said, the accusations against Moore are heinous, and if true, he should have never entered the race.

However, I was not about to jump to conclusions and make a judgement on a situation I know nothing about. I was willing, however, to cast my vote for someone that has spent a career publicly advocating for the same values I share.

While others such as Mitt Romney, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and even Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) were willing to put their support elsewhere due to the allegations — despite some evidence vindicating Moore — I like to hear all sides of the story first.

As a tireless advocate for free speech, I firmly believe that the more robust debate we have, the sooner we will come to the truth of a situation. In the meantime, I joined with other Alabama voters who voted for Moore based on their conservative principles rather than unproven allegations, no matter how troubling.

If Doug Jones were a pro-life candidate, or someone who advocated for less regulation and lower taxes, he probably would have had my vote, and he would have won in a landslide. There aren’t a lot of folks in Alabama who support Jones’ leftist agenda, but it looks like he had enough votes from those who could not see past the accusations against Moore to push him across the finish line.

Yes, there are winners and losers on election day. But the result of this election is not a “loss” for Trump’s agenda. Alabama voters remain huge supporters of the “make America great again” agenda. While the swamp may have gotten its way in this election, we will still push for our ultimate goals of achieving lower taxes, better healthcare, more jobs, and a more robust economy.

We hardly expected the Washington establishment to embrace Moore. We wanted a disruptor in Washington, but we were not successful this time. The status quo, or the “swamp,” will not be drained overnight. However, in Alabama we will keep working to prevent it from growing even more.

Shaun McCutcheon is an electrical engineer, president of the Coalmont Electrical Development Company, and successful plaintiff in the 2014 Supreme Court case McCutcheon vs. FEC.