OPINION:
America affords each and every citizen the right of due process, the presumption of innocence over guilt, the constitutional right to stand before one’s accusers and face the courtroom music.
And that includes Roy Moore.
But for the good of the Republican Party — for the good of the conservative cause — it’s time he stepped aside and let another fill his shoes. He simply can’t be effective any longer.
His credibility has been destroyed. The shadows above his head have grown darker. The skeletons in his closet, real or not, have shoved open the door. The suspicions that tarnish his name are just too persistent.
And on top of that, he’s not really offered comforting words to those who would support him — to those who still do support him — to out his accusers as false, to make clear the accusations that dot him are lies. On Fox News with Sean Hannity a few nights ago, Moore was pressed to address the sexual allegations made against him by several young women, one as young as age 14. He denied knowing at least one of the accusers, but gave waffly answers when it came time to denying dating teenage girls in the 1980s. His answers weren’t exactly straightforward “yeses” or “nos.”
And that’s a problem. Truth doesn’t generally require lengthy explanation.
Still, Moore says the allegations are politically motivated. And that’s actually quite plausible — at least, it’s plausible enough to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, Moore’s a political spitfire with a proven past of bucking party platforms and standing firm in the camp for God’s laws over human’s. He rose to national prominence by fighting the removal of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom, and by opposing gay marriage in his state when the U.S. Supreme Court said sternly he shouldn’t. That’s what made him a darling to the conservative camp.
Moore’s Alabama supporters huddled even tighter when President Donald Trump sided with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to rally for Luther Strange in the primary. Still, Moore prevailed — and once again, conservatives cheered, seeing in him a Senate candidate who would truly stand firm against the establishment masses, a la Trump, and fight the deep state in Washington, D.C.
But now more women have now come forward to accuse Moore of sexual harassment. The Washington Post blasted on Wednesday, “Two more women describe unwanted overtures by Roy Moore at Alabama mall.” The story’s about a woman named Gena Richardson who recounts for The Post her high school senior days, when she was working at Sears at the Gadsden Mall when a guy named Roy Moore approached and flirted.
“His overtures caused one store manager to tell new hires to ’watch out for this guy,’ another young woman to complain to her supervisor and Richardson to eventually hide from him when he came in Sears, the women say,” The Post story states.
There’s more. The overtures ended when she met him for a movie, and he drove her to a spot behind Sears and gave her “what she called an unwanted, ’forceful’ kiss that left her scared,” she said to The Post.
“Richardson, whose account was corroborated by classmate and Sears co-worker Kayla McLaughlin, is among four women who say Moore pursued them when they were teenagers or young women working at the mall,” The Post reported. “Richardson and Becky Gray, the woman who complained to her manager, have not previously spoken publicly.”
The other women have.
But facts are: Moore’s accusers are piling up. And here’s the telling part: These women are not anonymous. They’re giving their names. They’re speaking on-record. They’re opening themselves to lawsuits from the Moore camp.
But they’re speaking up anyway.
There comes a point when it’s hard to dismiss all the allegations as politically motivated, media bias, targeted take-down jobs. That may be the motivation of some on the side of pressing Moore to move away from politics. But it defies logic to explain all the allegations away that way.
Moore’s line of defense — that he’s the victim of political attack — grows too thin. The camp of accusers — named accusers — grows too large. The question mark above Moore’s head grows too dark. Defending him, or even standing quietly by and letting the Alabama race run its voter course, in the face of all this, grows ridiculous.
For the good of conservatism, for the good of the cause of patriotic, constitutional governance — the kind that puts God first, government second — Moore needs to bow out, gracefully if possible. But bow out, just the same, and let another take his place. That’s not admitting guilt; that’s being pragmatic.
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