The Republican National Committee has resumed its support of Roy Moore’s Senate campaign.
This is not Donald Trump. This is not Steve Bannon. This isn’t David Duke, or any other fringe nationalist. This is the national committee of the Party that commands majorities in the House, the Senate, and almost two thirds of state legislatures!
This is an indication that the formerly unthinkable has become not only thinkable but desirable — that a molester of teenaged girls can be a mainstream candidate for the United States Senate.
This is not an exception or an anomaly; millions of Republicans, including Republican women, feel it’s OK for Roy Moore to be a Senator. They think he’s a good example, a role model if you will. See, Johnny, this is what you could grow up to do and be.
There’s no going back from this. Democrats may think they can use Roy Moore to smear the whole Republican Party with the taint of pedophilia. But it isn’t going to work, because in order to get where we are, there must already have been a sea change in the attitudes of a large minority, even a majority in some places, of the American people. The RNC would not have reversed course on Moore without having done research to anticipate possible negative effects on public opinion. They’ve clearly decided that any negative effect can be tolerated.
This is the new face of the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and a large part of America.