Saturday, November 11, 2017

On Roy Moore and rural (and suburban) Alabama women

One of several stories the New York Times ran today about the Roy Moore scandal made references to urban and suburban women perhaps being fed up with the Senate candidate, his scandals and how much money he's cost the state because of them.  Here's an excerpt:
But like many in urban and suburban Alabama, the two women viewed the allegations reported by The Washington Post that Mr. Moore had made sexual overtures to teenagers decades ago not so much as a discrete scandal. Rather, it felt to them like the latest episode in a tawdry political sideshow with seemingly endless chapters
Journalist Richard Fausset quotes one such suburban woman, Sallie Gunter, a freelance court reporter who is 61: 
We’ve spent millions in Alabama on Roy Moore’s antics.  Millions that could have been spent on our kids and schools. I’m just fed up.  He needs to find something to do for people who adore him.
Gunter, who lives in an "upper-middle-class suburb" of Birmingham (which, Fausset describes as the home of moderates/swing voters) is further quoted: 
He’s just embarrassing
So, if Gunter represents such suburban swing voters, what might rural women do? Well, Fausset adds this:
Census statistics show that Alabama’s voting age population is, on balance, whiter, poorer and less educated than the nation’s. Like many other Republican candidates in statewide elections in the South, Mr. Moore draws much of his political strength from rural areas, which still have enormous clout.
Fausset did interview at least one female rural resident for the story:
Then again, Ms. [Gwen] Williams, who lives in rural Chilton County south of Birmingham, had never been a Roy Moore fan. She said she would “absolutely” be voting for Mr. Jones, but she was not so sure about her rural neighbors. “I’ve lived here all my life, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in my fellow voters making that shift,” she said. And at this point, she had no idea whether Mr. Moore could pull out a win. “It depends where the story goes,” she said. “This is the Bible Belt, and a 14-year-old is a 14-year-old is a 14-year-old.”
William is 63 years old, and she expressly labeled what Moore is accused of doing as "statutory rape" ... "even in Alabama."  Chilton County's population is 43,643.  

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