In Blow to Establishment, Alabama’s Judge Moore Defeats Strange
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In what is being widely described as a harbinger of more upcoming victories for anti-establishment conservatives, Christians, and constitutionalists, the enormously popular Judge Roy Moore dealt a crushing blow to the establishment and its chosen candidate in the race to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate. With about half of the votes counted, Moore won Tuesday’s Republian primary runoff election with massive margins. “Because of you, tonight, the establishment has been DEFEATED in Alabama!” Moore tweeted. His opponent, Senator Luther Strange, conceded the race before 9 pm Central Time, sparking celebrations by patriots and conservatives all across America.  

While establishment candidate and incumbent Luther Strange had the full backing of the “Swamp” in Washington, D.C. — and many millions of swamp dollars to prop up his campaign and demonize Moore — the people of Alabama ultimately sided with Moore. The victory was not unexpected, with every poll showing the anti-establishment Moore with a significant lead. But with warnings from conservatives about potential dirty tricks by the establishment, the formal win was a relief and a cause for celebration for patriots across America. Establishment operatives everywhere are said to be very concerned, with establishment-minded incumbents in Congress and state legislatures at risk of being the next ones to be replaced by increasingly aware voters.

In a statement, Strange graciously congratulated Moore. “From the beginning of this campaign, my priority has been serving the people of Alabama,” he said. “Tomorrow I will go back to work with President Trump and do all I can to advance his agenda over the next few weeks…. I congratulate Roy Moore on the result this evening. May God be with him and may God continue to bless Alabama and the United States of America.”   

The establishment spent many millions of dollars trying to sink Moore. But the people of Alabama have grown to love and respect him over the decades. Indeed, as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Moore gained the respect of Christians, conservatives, Tea Partiers, patriots, pro-family forces, constitutionalists, and others all across America. He did that by standing up for God and the Constitution against outrageous federal court rulings — twice — despite enormous personal cost to himself.

In the first historic case, Moore refused to take down a monument of the Ten Commandments. For that, he was ultimately removed from his post in a farcical proceeding by anti-Christian extremists and federal supremacists. Voters eventually sent him back for another term. And again, Moore was persecuted, this time for standing for the Constitution and marriage — and standing against lawless and anti-constitutional legislating by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Obergefell ruling, which purported to invent a “right” to a “homosexual marriage” that more than eight in 10 Alabama voters rejected at the ballot box. And now, it is again Moore who is having the last laugh.   

President Donald Trump halfheartedly waded into the race to back Strange. It began with a tweet endorsing Strange. Under enormous pressure from GOP leaders in Congress and especially Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose name is increasingly toxic among grassroots conservatives fed up with the establishment, Trump even visited Alabama last week to campaign for the incumbent. However, even the president himself, worried that his candidate might lose, admitted on stage that he “might have made a mistake” by endorsing Strange.

If Moore won the runoff, Trump said, he would support Moore’s campaign in the upcoming general election against the Democrat candidate. “I have to say this, if his opponent wins, I’m going to be here campaigning like hell for him,” Trump said about the judge. But even on Tuesday morning, the day of the vote, Trump sent out a Tweet urging Alabama voters to vote for “Big Luther.” Ironically, many of Trump’s own people in Alabama voted for Moore. Still, even among the most die-hard Trump fans, Moore’s victory is being touted as a major win for what has come to be known as “Trumpism.”

With Trump’s apparent blessing, even some of the president’s most loyal supporters — including his former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon of Breitbart, and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson — threw their weight behind Moore as well. At a campaign stop, Bannon said Moore would be more aligned with Trump’s “populist” agenda, telling voters that Alabama could show the world “that this populist, nationalist, conservative movement is on the rise.” “A vote for Judge Roy Moore is a vote for Donald J. Trump,” Bannon told enthusiastic supporters in Alabama. Another Trump loyalist, liberty-minded U.K. leader Nigel Farage, who helped lead his own nation to voting in favor of independence from the autocratic European Union, also campaigned for Moore.       

Before the vote, a number of prominent voices warned that the establishment might resort to dirty tricks to keep a committed Christian and firm constitutionalist out of the U.S. Senate. For example, spokesman Rob Chambers for the American Family Association’s political arm, known as AFA Action, which endorsed Moore, warned that “establishment” Republicans could attempt a repeat of the 2014 tactics used in Mississippi.

The situation there was similar, with the establishment desperate to defeat true conservative State Senator Chris McDaniel in favor of “RINO” U.S. Senator Thad Cochran. In that incident, which sparked outrage among grassroots conservatives across the state and nationwide, GOP establishment figures paid Democrat leaders to urge Democrats to vote for Cochran. They even used blatant lies to scare Democrats into voting in the GOP primary against the conservative candidate. Whether elements of the GOP establishment will be willing to side with Democrats in Alabama to keep a true conservative out of the Senate remains to be seen.     

In an example of the dishonesty that has marked the establishment’s vicious campaign against Moore, one of the more recent attacks suggested he was not as tough as he should be on gun rights. Of course, Moore has never shown any indication of being soft on gun rights or any other God-given liberties enshrined in the Constitution. But to prove his commitment, at one of his final campaign rallies, Moore literally whipped out his personal pistol on stage, making headlines from shocked anti-gun activists pretending to be unbiased journalists.

In an interview with The New American last month, Moore made clear that he would be working to preserve and protect the whole Constitution upon arrival in Washington. “I know a little bit about the Constitution, and I know that the federal government is not following the Constitution,” said the judge, who graduated from the prestigious West Point Military Academy and served in Vietnam. “People don’t even regard it, generally, in Washington, D.C., but I think it needs to be brought back.”

And unlike many politicians who talk like constitutionalists on the campaign trail but then vote like they never read the document once they are in office, Moore has a track record to prove his constitutional fidelity — and he has endured very serious consequences for standing on principle. Quoting the Constitution, speeches from the founders, and Bible verses from memory, Moore said one key part of his agenda would be reining in the federal courts and their unconstitutional decisions.

“Judges who put themselves above the Constitution are putting themselves above the law and should be impeached by the Congress and removed by the Senate,” he said. In addition to impeachment, Congress has the power to rein in the courts under Article 3, Section 2 of the Constitution, which allows lawmakers to change the jurisdiction of the federal courts, Moore explained. Finally, every federal district and appellate court “serves at the pleasure of Congress,” he added, again citing the plain language of the U.S. Constitution.    

By contrast, among the major problems with Strange was his lack of fidelity to the U.S. Constitution he promised, with his hand on the Bible, to uphold and defend. During his brief time in the Senate, where he was appointed by a scandal-plagued governor who has since resigned, Senator Strange earned a measly 57 percent on The New American‘s Freedom Index, which ranks lawmakers based on the constitutionality of their voting records.

Over that period, senators who take their oath of office to the Constitution seriously did far better. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), for instance, earned a perfect 100 percent, while Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) received a 90 percent. For perspective, Strange scored worse than even neoconservative Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) and only slightly better than ObamaCare savior John McCain of Arizona, both of whom are widely criticized by grassroots conservatives as Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). Representative Brooks of Alabama, who also ran for the Senate seat but ended up endorsing Moore, has a 74 percent over his congressional career and a 78 in the most recent period.

This is a crucial time in American history, Moore continued in the interview. “Our country is in crisis right now,” said Moore, who has four children and five grandchildren. “In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote these are the times that try men’s souls. I believe these are not only times that try men’s souls, but the soul of our nation as well. The people know what I stand for, they know what I’ll do, and they know that I’ll stand on the principles upon which our nation was founded. All the money, power, and prestige in Washington, and the folks there, can’t change the facts of how my opponent got appointed to the job, nor can they change the fact that the people of the great state of Alabama will elect the next senator for the United States Congress.”

With the primary and the run-off out of the way, the next step is the general election. Moore will face off against Democrat Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney during President Bill Clinton’s time in the White House. Alabama is among the most conservative states in America, though, and the winner of the GOP runoff has been almost universally regarded as a shoo-in for the general election. The final vote to decide who will represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate will take place on December 12.

Photo of Roy Moore: AP Images     

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU or on Facebook.

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