Roy Moore, Jeff Flake and the paradox of news

I write occasionally about what I call, "the paradox of news." My terminology, as far as I can tell. That which is new and different gets attention, which makes people think that it is normal, when it is the very opposite. The paradox is most pernicious when it comes to terrorism, mass shootings, and other things that make people shit their pants out of fear of something that really isn't a serious threat to them. Such fears have real political effects. In contrast, we do jack shit about waterborne pathogens, which kill 10,000 per day around the world, roughly.

Yesterday, retiring Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona wrote a $100 check to Doug Jones, the Democratic opponent of Roy Moore. For a while, I have pointed out what has been missing on the Republican side regarding Moore. If anyone really opposes him, we have a two-party system. Jones or Moore. So, unless you are going to advocate, explicitly, that the voters of Alabama elect Moore so that he can be expelled to be replaced by Gov. Ivey, the only way to oppose the child rapist is to support Doug Jones. Jeff Flake is actually doing it.

And on the check, he wrote, "COUNTRY OVER PARTY."

This constitutes national news. At one level, anything regarding the Alabama Senate race is news because it is a special election in more than one sense of the word. Crossing party lines, though, didn't used to be all that unusual. In fact, in recent national conventions, prominent members of opposing parties have been given high-profile speaking slots. In 2008, Joe Lieberman supported John McCain, while Colin Powell supported Barack Obama. In 2004, Zell Miller supported George W. Bush, and then in a testy exchange with Chris Matthews, Miller challenged Matthews to a duel. Yes, seriously.

The further back you go, the more examples you can find, but there were always at least few.

Right now, though, Flake is being treated as real news because he is real news. Romney made a comment about how "no majority is worth losing our honor." Yeah, sorry, Mittski, but you said some similar stuff about Donny-boy, and, um... remember this?

You dropped to your knees like you were a female staffer and Conyers was pushing your head as soon as Trump pretended he might offer you that Sec. State job! (Yeah, fuck you Conyers, you sack of shit!)

Right now, it is news when prominent Republicans actually, truly support the Democrat over the child rapist. Why? Because as far as they are concerned, the D-R balance is all that matters. Pretty soon, I'll be writing a lot about the work of Frances Lee, I believe. (Incidentally, I have the job that she vacated when she left CWRU, so thanks, Frances!)

Anyway, let that sink in. It is real news when someone crosses party lines to oppose the child rapist. I have written about why, and explained how the GOP has a viable strategic and moral option here-- just let Moore win, then expel him. If you accept conservative principles, that strikes me as perfectly defensible. Seating Moore is indefensible, and cozying up to him is not.

Taking a stand against a child rapist, though, is now actually news. And I don't think this will create the false impression that it is normal for Republicans to do this kind of thing because the story itself is how unusual this is. We have found a solution to the paradox of news.

So at least there's that.