The one thing we expect from public officials in this country — be they elected, members of law enforcement, judges, or even the ladies and gentlemen of a jury — is that they apply a secular standard to the application and enforcement of the law. Freedom of religion means freedom FROM religion, and the very least we can do is expect our public officials to work towards our shared, secular goals.
Of course, many public officials fall woefully short of secular oaths and promises. Judges routinely let their personal views on abortion or gays influence their opinions in those areas. Politicians make ostentatious displays of faith. Cops… well, cops act like that badge makes them actual Gods. The separation of church and state is a legal fiction. We do what we can to keep up appearances, but a truly “non-denominational” Republic would work wildly differently than our à la carte theocratic hypocrisy.
Still, most people most of the time pay lip service to our secular norms before asking for the public trust. And even the ones who don’t (Mike Pence comes to mind) at least try to show how their faith is not in direct conflict with secular goals (unless you’re gay… or a “female” who thinks she can eat with male colleagues without having a nymphomaniac breakdown).
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But there are outliers. There are people who so boldly and intolerantly attempt to foist their religious beliefs on the rest of us that one wonders why they even want to be out of the pulpit long enough to get on a ballot. These people are a violation of our public agreement to work for all people, regardless of creed.
For my money, the worst current offender of this social compact is Judge Roy Moore. We have detailed how he refused to remove a Ten Commandments Statute from his courthouse, despite a court order, and was kicked off the bench. But the people of Alabama elected him again. For round two, Moore encouraged subordinates not to give our marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite a Supreme Court order.
And now the people of Alabama are poised to elect him again. Not as a judge this time, but as a United States Senator. There are literally only 100 allowed to serve our country at this highest legislative level, and the people of Alabama seem to think Roy Moore should be one of them.
At his campaign rally yesterday, before today’s runoff in the Republican primary that will surely lead to a general election victory for the winner, Roy Moore was joined by Phil Robertson (the Duck Dynasty guy), Nigel Farage (the Brexit guy), and Steve Bannon (the demonic guy). Moore toted a revolver on stage… because for some reason Alabamans think Jesus told his apostles, “WHY AREN’T YOU SHOOTING THE ROMANS? OW, OW, STAND YOUR GROUND MEN!” Here’s a brief NBC excerpt from the event:
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Robertson, sporting in his signature camouflage clothes and long beard boasted that he doesn’t own a cell phone and has never turned on a computer. He urged the crowd not to worry much about the health care debate currently raging Washington, because everyone is going to die.
“Invest in eternal health care,” he said, referring to Christianity.
Moore took the stage afterwards, wearing a cowboy hat and vest, perhaps a reference to his tradition of riding a horse to the polls for every election.
Moore opened with a story about the time Robertson caught a “very rich New York lawyer” on his land and kicked him “you know where.”
“Mitch McConnell needs to be replaced,” he said in one of his loudest applause lines. “We’ve got to go back to God. We’ve got to go back to a moral base.”
He’s going to win. A person who has failed to uphold the Constitution, TWICE, when charged with doing so, is going to be Alabama’s next Senator. And there’s nothing we can do about it.
If you caught the reference in my title, I’m pretty much despondent over this likely turn of events. I’ve covered this guy for YEARS, and for him to be elevated like this feels not unlike a personal failure. It’s hard to explain: I can’t do anything about Donald Trump or Brock Turner, but Roy Moore feels like a guy I should be able to stop.
And so my only solace is Aaron Sorkin.
Other people win. All of us non-Roy Moores out there just have to keep fighting.
Alabama Senate Race: Roy Moore Wields Revolver, as Pence Vouches for Luther Strange [NBC News]
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.