Despite being a traditionally “red” U.S. state, Alabama this week sent a Democrat, Doug Jones, to the Senate for the first time in 25 years. His victory reduced the gap between the Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to 49-51, favouring Republicans. This puts the Democrats within striking range of control of the Senate. While that may bring cheer to an embattled Democratic Party, liberals across America still have good reason to worry about what happened in Alabama. Mr. Jones’ Republican challenger was Roy Moore, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. He is also a man in favour of whose candidacy President Donald Trump issued many an exclamation-laden tweet, notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Moore stands accused of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct. Despite what many would assume was a fatal weakness going into the Senate campaign, Mr. Moore garnered at least 48.4% of the vote, whereas Mr. Jones won 49.9%. The outcome had an eerie echo of Mr. Trump’s victory last year, which came a month after the release of a damning video, the Access Hollywood tape in which Mr. Trump could be heard bragging about sexual assault. Are large numbers of American voters, including American women, willing to overlook this sort of behaviour? What does that imply for the mid-term elections in 2018 and the next general election in 2020?
One thing is certain. The rise of Mr. Trump has not only left the Democratic Party in shambles but has also shredded the Republican Party by rendering it relatively irrelevant through direct presidential outreach via social media. Of course, Mr. Trump still relies on Capitol Hill to pass, for example his “tax cut for the middle class” but he is also probably stinging from Congress’ failure to pass the repeal of Obamacare. Facing a severe lacuna in organisational prowess, which refers to the systems and processes through which potential candidates are vetted into the nomination phase, the Grand Old Party is ripe for the plucking by more demagogues. This was perfectly exemplified by the case of Mr. Moore, who in addition to the sexual impropriety allegations faced questions over his views on Muslims and on sexual and racial minorities. Yet, as some analysts have observed, in the present political scenario, demagogic candidates are benefiting enormously from a bitterly partisan, racially fragmented voter base. This cohort rushes to support leaders with bigoted views even when those leaders are not backed by the party mainstream. In Alabama, over 90% of African-American men and women voted for Mr. Jones, yet a whopping 72% and 63% of white men and women respectively voted for Mr. Moore. The only way for the Democratic Party to fight this dangerous trend is to throw up leaders who represent the flip side of the Trump-Moore paradigm: fiery progressive populists who are not afraid to step back from an overemphasis on political correctness.