Fecteau: Moore’s Morality Matters

Thursday, November 16, 2017
Matt Fecteau, GoLocalPDX Guest MINDSETTER™

Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore has been accused by at least five women of molestation when they were underage. To say I am disgusted this individual is still considered a serious candidate would be generous; in all honesty, I threw up in my mouth hearing some indeed seem to believe that Mr. Moore is fit to hold office (according to one poll he is up by double digits!).

These allegations are deplorable and repulsive. It should also be noted, this story has been backed up by multiple sources, and various media outlets. Mr. Moore is the complete and utter humiliation the Republican Party deserves for it pioneered the complete fiction that is the party of moral principles, and ethics, a party so pious, and so self-righteous, but has an alleged pedophile under its umbrella? Come on! Conservatives and Republicans need to put down this mantel of phony morals and ethics and just admit this has always been a cheap power grab.

However, despite calls from GOP leaders to “step aside.” Mr. Moore says he is staying in the race and has even had the audacity to call on GOP Senate leadership to step down. Some have said that Mr. Moore may lose this coming election, but after Mr. Donald Trump became president after he admitted -- on camera -- he sexually assaulted women because "they let [him] do it," I still believe Mr. Moore is a viable candidate (I am deeply troubled I have to say that).

Mr. Moore has some allies left such as conservative talking head Mr. Sean Hannity that featured him on his radio show. Some conservatives such as Breitbart News founder and former Trump Presidential advisor Steve Bannon have even defended Moore. The repulsive Mr. Bannon has even dispatched members of his own media team to Alabama in an effort to discredit the women making these accusations. These women had the courage to come forward, and now have the unfortunate privilege of being attacked for their bravery.

This is all part of an unfortunate phenomenon. We no longer seem to argue about facts, but we simply label a legitimate story as fake news (as Mr. Moore has called these stories) in order protect members of our tribe (political party). Legitimate stories are seemingly undercut for political reasons -- making it harder to discern fact from fiction. Mr. Bannon did at one time say the media is the “opposition party.”

As a country, we need to come together and admit certain individuals are not fit to hold public office. We also must admit sometimes the mainstream media for all its flaws does get a story right. Political affiliation should furthermore mean nothing in the face of such egregious moral reprehensibility such as with the case of Mr. Moore.

Matt Fecteau ([email protected]) is a Master of Public Administration candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and an Iraq War veteran. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewFecteau