You won’t hear it mentioned by those insufferable “panels of experts” who’ve been crying in their beer on CNN almost nightly since Donald Trump upset their applecarts 13 months ago, but if Judge Roy Moore prevails in tomorrow’s special election for a U.S. Senate seat down in Alabama, it’ll be, as Yogi Berra once put it, “deja vu all over again.”
If it happens you can call it voter nullification.
That’s the flip side of jury nullification, which much of America still associates with O.J. Simpson’s stunning acquittal on two counts of murder 22 years ago. In the court of public opinion, his jury seemingly turned blind eyes to incontrovertible evidence of the football legend’s guilt.
How could that be? Because a jury can bring more than courtroom dialogue into the room where its verdict is rendered; it can bring personal baggage, including personal resentments and agendas.
Voter nullification works the same way.
The assumption here is that George W. Bush was ushered into the presidency by lots of voters who simply couldn’t abide Al Gore or John Kerry.
Those who loathe Trump still ask, “How could you have voted for that guy?” They just don’t seem to understand: “I didn’t vote for him; I voted against her (Hillary Clinton).”
That’s voter nullification; it’s like making a defensive move in chess.
Moore, a West Point grad who served as an Army captain in Vietnam, had long ago incurred the wrath of liberals and secularists, championing public displays of the Ten Commandments and vigorously opposing such cultural transitions as same-sex marriage.
The possibility of him winning tomorrow horrifies them.
So when allegations of scandalous behavior years ago began to surface, their rush to condemn him was as ferocious as the running of the bulls at Pamplona, until, one by one, political lions on the left began to tumble under the weight of similarly outrageous allegations.
Suddenly Nancy Pelosi was wringing hands in newfound concern over “due process.”
The hypocrisy, duplicity and shameless demagoguery of those who’ve been nipping at Moore’s heels is reminiscent of the crowd that couldn’t stomach Trump, and still can’t.
There’s a right way to win, but there’s also a right way to lose, and the guessing here is that much of Alabama, like much of America, has had its fill of these petulant losers who can be seen, heard and read on an almost daily basis.
But tomorrow a segment of the electorate will finally have its say.
If Moore prevails it’ll be because, at last, vox populi prevailed, too, as it should.
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