I Was Wrong. Hallelujah!

Last night I stayed up past my bedtime to watch Alabama make history. I said a few weeks ago that I didn’t believe Roy Moore would step down. On that point, I was right. But I also said, and believed, that Moore would win the senate seat. I didn’t believe the people of Alabama would elect a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, no matter what. On that point, I was wrong. And I am so glad.

Today Alabama is on the right side of history. The people of Alabama chose the good man over the sanctimonious hypocrite. And if Alabama can do the right thing? Well, surely the rest of America can do better. It’s almost enough to restore my faith in this country.

The election results aren’t the only thing lifting my spirits. Yesterday a mainstream American newspaper denounced our current president in one of the most scathing editorials I’ve ever read. This was no liberal rag. I’m talking about USA Today. This is the newspaper of your grandfather and generic hotel chains. I was hardly aware that the editorial board of USA Today expressed any opinions, but, boy, did they express an opinion last night.  Here is the subhead of that editorial:

A president who’d all but call a senator a whore is unfit to clean toilets in Obama’s presidential library or to shine George W. Bush’s shoes.

And it gets more scathing from there. There is no room for doubt about how the editorial board of USA Today feels about our current president. What spurred this strong opinion? Lots of things, but apparently the editors were particularly offended by the president’s latest tweet in which he accused Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York of seeking campaign donations in exchange for sexual favors. The president’s soulless mouthpiece, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, tried to spin the tweet as no more than a garden variety insult, suggesting that anyone who read sexual innuendo into the president’s words must have his mind in the gutter. It’s sad. Ms. Sanders cannot look up and see the gutter from where she wallows.

I won’t get too optimistic—my father taught me the folly of that—but I am heartened. When voters in Alabama and the editorial board at USA Today rise up against dirty, divisive, dishonest men, can the rest of the country be far behind?

Thanks for showing us how it’s done, Alabama. Thanks for raising your voice, USA Today editorial board. Thanks to you, the high road has never looked so accessible. Let’s join hands and walk on it together.

 

Tiffany Quay Tyson
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