Obama appealed eloquently to logic and common sense. That is a non starter now in America, and especially in third-world Alabama. Trump sought to motivate by emotion, working Alabama voters into a rage.

It always works, and I have never seen it backfire yet.

Unfortunately, Moore will win.

Tragically, Nattering Nabobs of Negativity have always existed.

I think it was Nattering Nabobs of Negativism.

But your observation is absolutely correct, although I'd argue that Agnew was full of shit and off the mark on that one.

Sorry--"you can take the teacher out of the classroom"...

There are far too many who only vote every 4 years and who won't vote in off year elections, won't vote in any primaries, and definitely tend to ignore special elections, and that has got to stop.

and Obama was talking to them. Yes, of course Alabama has more than its share of mouth-breathers, but please remember that Alabama was ground zero in the Civil Rights movement. People...good people--fought, and some died, for those rights in that state.

And now, they must vote. Obama is giving them hope when others are telling them that their votes don't matter, that Moore will win and there's nothing they can do about it.

Maybe Moore will win, but their votes do matter.

that must get to the polls.

Moore talks like he wants to bring SLAVERY back. Do blacks and others with a lick of sense and humanity need more motivation?

They have the most to lose if Moore wins.

The state of Alabama is 27% black. You have a number of historically black colleges there including Tuskegee University (originally Institute). Coretta Scott King was from Alabama.

Hell, my own state of PA is only 12% black.

Including my dad - move/moved away.

Moorehouse/Spelman are different because they are in Hotlanta.

But Tuskeegee? Eh? No - same today as in the 50's and 60's.

and stayed! Married and had a family and opted to live in Montgomery, where, according to the family, opened up a black-owned hotel/establishment (since segregation wouldn't allow blacks to stay at white hotels). And he was born in VA and raised in Philly. (<--my mother and his "baby" sister, my grandmother, did the facepalm too).

We were huge 'boosters' there. My Great Grandfather and his dad were contemporaries of Washington.

He went there - but sent his sons to Morehouse!

And yaahhh - The hell? My dad's family is 'rooted' in Talladega. One of my aunts was with Jones two Saturdays ago!

where there were "activists" or as they called 'em "race men".

In general, unless they went to Lincoln or Oberlin or Cheney, etc, they had to go down south for an education (outside of the occasional "quotas" permitted at some schools). And some stayed and tried to make a difference.

Meanwhile my mother swore she would never go below the Mason-Dixon line and would only fly over it (although she went to Howard her first 2 years in college). We did end up getting her to Hotlanta for my cousin's wedding but she complained the whole time (except when we visited Ebenezer Baptist Church, the MLK Memorial, and CNN ).

Yeah - black folks gotta show up.

BUT - it's incumbent upon DECENT white folks doing the right thing and either STAYING HOME - or crossing parties and voting for Jones.

Here's a poor white woman disenfranchised
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/too_poor_to_vote_how_alabamas.html

"blaming" minorities for everything under the sun is ludicrous including voting. However aside from the suppression (which includes things like AL did with closing DMVs where people could register in predominately minority areas of counties & prison population), there is still a pocket of non-voters in the bigger cities, not only there, but everywhere. It's one of those things where if a child grows up in a household that puts a value to doing it, there is a better chance the child will continue to do it when not suppressed.

And unfortunately I will be cynical that any significant number of whites down there will ever change in my lifetime. Perhaps this brief period where the Confederate symbols are being removed may be a catalyst for future generations to put that history into perspective but we are nowhere near that point yet.

A good many DUers are basically like Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh, very few are like Tigger.

Yes we need to be loud and angry but leaders are calm and reasonable. Go Obama!

Last edited Mon Dec 11, 2017, 02:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Even if Trump wanted to do that, and I doubt he does, he does not have the words or the moral credibility to do so. I suspect that Trump's angry words speak only to his base. It is possible that his argument that Republicans need that seat to pass legislation - the same argument made by the Alabama Governor and others - will move some people. Though what I wonder is whether that argument is weakened by all the fact that the terribly written tax bill is less popular than any major pieces of legislation. Consider that ACA was far more popular when Scott Brown used anger against it to win the deep blue Massachusetts seat - when it was thought that we needed that 60th seat to pass the conference bill.

They are near the same point - where under reconciliation - they need 50 votes - and Collins is a possible 'no' as she now knows McConnell's promise was not worth the paper he printed it on. It is even clearer than before that it blows up the deficit -- and Ryan is on record that he will go after Social Security and Medicare. If Jones wins, I hope that part of the reason is rejection of the tax plan - just as rejection of ACA was said to be a reason for Brown. Note that they would likely not be happy with the house passing the Senate bill "as is" - as we did with ACA, because the Senate Republicans screwed up and the corporate AMT would mean that all corporations pay at least the current AMT amount - far less a tax cut than they wanted to give corporations. Note they can not pass a stand alone bill to remove the AMT and have it pass under reconciliation because it clearly violates the rules -unlike the additional bill that corrected a few minor ACA things.

... and thank you!

Why shouldn't Obama take the moral high ground? That's where he belongs, and Alabamians need to hear it from him.

they are against it. Doesn't matter what it is...

In particular, the african american community which could make a huge difference if they come out in droves.

Sadly many Alabamans i've seen in forums/chats are fixed on voting for Moore. They think all accusations on him are lies and they have a lot of distrust for Dems and people with reason.

Probably 90% of people completely ignore special elections (and you are lucky to even get a 10% turnout at a primary let alone a special election) so any bump in turnout from our side is a bonus.

Just remember, the GOP is having difficulty defending a solid GOP seat

I know the Russian/Trump trolls are doing all they can to spread negativity and defeatism to help elect their friends Roy, so we have to fight back. This election hinges more on who turns out to vote than on who is a pedophile.

and it's going on in this thread.

In favor of Roy Moore

This really made my day. Thanks for posting.