Please forgive another political post, but I care about what’s going on in this nation.
There’s an interesting Senate race currently taking place in Alabama. It’s taking place to fill the slot left vacant by the ascension of Sen. Jeff Sessions to the Attorney General post.
Luther Strange was selected to fill Session’s seat temporarily. He’s been a good supporter of Trump, and Trump has reciprocated by endorsing him and now actively campaigning for him.
The problem is that Strange has some very solid competition. Judge Roy Moore, he of support for displaying the 10 Commandments in the public square fame, is running for the seat. And Moore has been walloping Strange since Day One. Conservatives love Moore, who has always stood for solid values.
Strange is seen as more of an establishment type. He supports Trump on most of the big issues, but if I may speak for most conservatives, he is not well trusted.
So why then did Trump endorse Strange? Tonight, at a Strange rally, Trump admitted that he did so out of “loyalty”, and he even allowed that he might have made a mistake! Some endorsement. If nothing else, you have to love Trump’s honesty.
The scenario reminds me strongly of Mike Pence’s last minute endorsement of Ted Cruz before the Indiana primary last year. Pence endorsed Cruz, and then spent the rest of the announcement lauding Trump. So why then did Pence endorse Cruz? I can only surmise it was because Cruz ticked all the boxes: pretty good conservative record, open evangelical Christian, etc, whereas Trump was known primarily for his earthy lifestyle.
In other words, Pence went by the scorecard and voted based on loyalty, despite what his heart was telling him, just as Trump is doing today.
The problem is, ladies and gentlemen, the scorecard doesn’t cut it when you are up against the wall and need a hail Mary – if you’ll pardon the metaphor. Cruz would have been destroyed in the general election. He was compromised ideologically, and Hillary’s machine would have eaten him for breakfast. Only the bombastic, new-media-savvy Trump, who offered the electorate a genuinely different choice, had a chance against her, despite what the fake polls and biased prognosticators were trying to tell us.
And now Trump is making the same mistake. He looks at the scorecard. He reasons that he has to play nice with the Senators Club, so they’ll be nice to him. And he votes establishment.
But while Trump’s base still supports him, they are not agreeing with him on this one. They are mature enough to know they can vote against his recommendation and still support him on the national level. This is a very good thing.
Trump said tonight that if Moore wins the runoff, he will support him in the general election come November. That is a good thing, and I hope it will come down to exactly that.
