John Thune on Establishment Politics in the District of Calamity

 One week before the Alabama Senate election to replace Jeff Sessions (R-AL), who left the comforts of the Senate to be President Trump's Attorney General,  there are still Republicans who are trying to manipulate the race.

The appointed replacement Senator Luther Strange (R-AL), who had the backing of Beltway Establishment and President Trump, was defeated in the primaries by former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore (R-AL).    

Since then, the Washington Post has been printing bombshell reports that Moore had indecent relations with minors and had a penchant for dating teenagers when he was a 34 year old Assistant District Attorney. Even though Moore had been in the spotlight for nearly forty years and never had such allegations come to light, partisans on both sides agitated over these accusations. 

Democrats saw the Moore allegations as a way to make trouble and pick up an unexpected Senate seat.  They will paint Moore's continued presence in the race with Republicans being creepy child molesters and pair him with Donald Trump.  Alabama Law does not allow for substitute candidates, so if Moore dropped out at this point (or there was a write in effort), it creates trouble and still gives Democrats a chance to have virtual control of the 115th Congress (with a united 49 seat Democrat minority).

Republican Party partisans fear that they might lose an otherwise dependable seat, so they sought to either have Moore drop out or have a credible Republican write in option.  The latter strategy would have party bosses choose the candidate thereby mooting the voice of the voters in Alabama.  There are few instances in successful Senate write in candidates, and the exception to the rule was Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in 2010,  an incumbent who had plenty of time to run as a write-in. Even so, there were problems with misspelling and discerning voter intent. Centrist Republican media personality Hugh Hewitt suggested that if Senator Strange resigned, it would preclude the 12/12 special election and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) could appoint another substitute Senator until November 2018.  That did not happen.

The Republican National Committee and the Republican National Senate Committee had withdrawn support from Roy Moore to disassociate themselves with the candidate and possibly nudge him to step aside.  But the Alabama GOP and Governor Ivey stuck by Moore, even with the unsavory allegations.  At first, President Trump just did negative campaigning against Democrat Senate candidate Doug Jones (D-AL). One week before the special election, Trump gave full support.  Senator McConnell relented as did the RNC.

Senator Thune's (R-SD) cri-de-coeur on Cavuto epitomizes the Establishment's animus against Roy Moore.  Even before he is elected, the  GOP leaders threaten an ethics probe.  Does the Republican Senate leadership  just want to maintain a whiter than snow aura to them? Could Roy Moore's social conservative politics have anything to do with last minute appeals discouraging voting for the firebrand.  Perhaps Moore's vow not to continue support for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have something to do with the cable TV hit?

Roy Moore may be a lightning rod in the District of Calamity in 2018.  Democrats will want to run on character assassination and majority ineptitude.   Establishment Republicans want to keep power but not rock the boat, thus it is to the GOP Senate leadership's advantage to keep a firebrand out of office, even if it means having a virtually divided Senate.

Alabama was one of the states which rocketed candidate Donald Trump to the Republican Presidential nomination.  This conservative state filled with old time religion embraced the flawed character of Mr. Trump.  Pollster George Barna postulated that SAGE-Cons (Spiritually Aware Governmentally Active Conservatives) looked beyond the human flaws of Trump to see someone who now embraces their core beliefs and one who is willing to shake up the system of get things done.

On December 12th, Alabamans will make their choice.

A Show After the Show for Ferguson the Play's Final Closing Curtain

Conservative entertainment activist Phelim Mc Aleer held the World Premiere of his  2015 play "Ferguson the Play" in New York City . The drama depicts the shooting of Michael Brown by a greater St. Louis police officer  in 2014 which sparked several days of rioting. This ugly incident which galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement under the ersatz slogan "Hands up, don't shoot."  Mc Aleer wrote the play because he believed that the truth that it was a defensive shooting was not getting out because of media bias buying into a progressive activist agenda.

What made Ferguson the play notable is that playwright McAleer constructed the verbatum theater completely using the released transcript of the Ferguson Grand Jury.  McAleer and director Jerry Dixon worked with a multi-racial cast to put on the controversial courtroom drama  for a short run at the 30th Street Playhouse in Manhattan.

On the closing night, Cedric Benjamin commadeered the stage at the close to voice his displeasure as he thought that the play was unbalanced and biased.





Director Jerry Dixon shut down the rogue actor's rant, but the histrionic polemic spilled out into the street, with actor Benjamin accusing playwright Mc Aleer  of "white arrogance".  




Mc Aleer later praised the director for shutting down the unscripted lecture by a cast member.

It seems ironic that the actor invoked arrogance against the playwright, who raised over  $51,000 in a crowdfunding campaign to mount the production, when the actor could not just say his lines. Mc Aleer deliberately brought Ferguson the play to New York after the cast of Hamilton accosted attendee then Vice President Elect Mike Pence to defy the conceit that conservatives are not welcomed in the New York theater community.

On the first production, which was a stage reading in 2015, nine members of the Los Angeles cast walked off, with one actor claiming that he did not trust Mc Aleer's motives.  At least those thespians were professional enough to disassociate themselves with a theatrical vehicle with which they could not agree.

Ironically, Cedric Benjamin's grand gesture might prove to be counterproductive.  It has drawn more attention to a small production, thrusting it into the news.  Phelim Mc Aleer continues to fund raise over the controversy with an expressed purpose of continuing to perform Ferguson the Play in New York.   Mc Aleer took great consolation that one BLM attendee who attended the play and left shocked and mystified that "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" was a lie.

Pollster George Barna recently sought to understand why evangelical Christians supported Donald Trump, who seemed to contradict many of their mores.  A large part of the answer is that SAGE-cons (Spiritually Aware Governmentally Engaged) conservatives have great distrust in the mainstream (a.ka. lamestream) media because of biased reporting against Trump that they now use alternate media sources to avoid "fake news".  By banding together on core issues like rule of law,  Barna contends that this 11% sliver of of the American electorate voting for Donald Trump was "The Day Christians Change America" (2017).

The strength of SAGE-cons influencing America was shown more than for Election 2016.  The informal boycotts by football fans of the NFL as they tolerate players who Take A Knee during the National Anthem has severely cut into attendance along with television ratings and is influencing advertisers like Papa John's Pizza to pull back.  Such a motivated minority of SAGE-cons may well see Ferguson the Play as a chance to actuate their ideas and counter the "fake news" phenomenon in entertainment as well as cultural conceits.