Because Doug Jones was running against an accused pedophile for Alabama’s vacant Senate seat after Jeff Sessions decided that he would like to ruin the country from inside the White House, no one thoroughly vetted Jones’ politics.
And can you blame anyone for not knowing anything about Jones, really? We all knew that he was a civil rights attorney who fought against the Ku Klux Klan—prosecuting two KKK members for the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. And, maybe even more important, he wasn’t an accused pedophile.
But since black women stormed the polls and threw Jones the victory, he’s come out twice now making claims that don’t feel very much in alignment with those who secured him his new job.
First the Democratic senator-elect claimed that it was time to move on from sexual-misconduct allegations made against President Donald Trump, according to CNN. Not sure how that works, the moving-on part. Can the women who’ve noted that they were assaulted by President Handsy von PussyGrabber just move on? Doesn’t the trauma that he allegedly caused them haunt their sleep? Seems a bit disingenuous to act as if these claims of assault are something that America needs to just “move on” from.
If that weren’t bad enough, which it is, Jones has also found it appropriate to note that he’d consider voting Republican on certain issues. It isn’t that Jones may vote Republican; it’s more that he believes he needs to announce that he’s willing to vote Republican.
He also pledged to look for areas where he can work across the aisle.
When asked if he had to consider voting with Republicans to “truly represent” his state, he said, “Of course I do.”
“I’m going to talk to people on both sides of the aisle, try to figure out what I think is in the best interest of my state and in the country,” Jones told CNN.
He also wants to assure those in Alabama who didn’t vote for him that they can count on him for a vote or two down the road: “Now, don’t expect me to vote solidly for Republicans or Democrats.”
This super annoys the shit out of me, because it’s quintessential Democratic kumbaya bullshit. Republicans have made a practice of running on an agenda akin to the cover of an N.W.A album. The only priority from the jump for winning office is to blatantly state, “Fuck tha Democrats!”
So it always bothers me when Democrats find it necessary to make sure that after they win office, they appease those voters who hate their guts. It’s early—like, really early—but I don’t like what I’m hearing coming out of Jones’ mouth, which sounds a lot like soft-shoeing to appease the right.
Read more at CNN.