Reaction To Roy Moore Will Fuel An Even Greater Backlash From Women Than We Saw On Tuesday

One of the biggest numbers coming out of Tuesday's elections was just how enormous the gender gap has become. Educated women came out in droves to support Ralph Northam and other Democrats. Steve Schmidt called the Democratic wave on Tuesday something like the awakening of the constituency of the decent.

Imagine the anger of this constituency in the wake of the allegations, with supporting testimony, that Roy Moore molested a 14 year-old girl when he was 32. The reactions in Congress among Republicans were, with the exception of John McCain, basically all the same, namely that, "if the allegations prove true", Moore must step down, essentially giving themselves plenty of wiggle room. Of course, if you don't believe the corroborating testimony or are not concerned with a 32 year old man cavorting with 14 to 18 year olds, then you won't know "if" the allegations are true until there is a court case, if there ever even is one.

But the reaction of the Republican party in Alabama, as well as the right wing sound machine such as Fox News and Breitbart, is truly beyond shocking. Here are a few examples:

• Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry said he'd vote for Roy Moore even if Moore did commit a sex crime against a girl. "I would vote for Judge Moore because I wouldn't want to vote for Doug. I'm not saying I support what he did."
• Alabama Mobile County GOP chairman John Skipper: "It does not really surprise me. I think it is a typical Democratic - Democrat - ploy to discredit Judge Moore, a sincere, honest, trustworthy individual."
• Alabama state Auditor Jim Ziegler: "Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus."
• Alabama Marion County GOP chair David Hall: "It was 40 years ago. I really don't see the relevance of it. He was 32. She was supposedly 14. She's not saying that anything happened other than they kissed." When told that Moore had tried to get the 14 year-old girl to touch his penis, Hall replied, "Well, she said he may have TRIED to. But we're talking something that somebody SAID happened, 40 years ago. It wouldn't affect whether or not I'd vote for him. The other women that they’re using to corrobrate: number one, one was 19, one was 17, one was 16. There’s nothing wrong with a 30-year-old single male asking a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, or a 16-year-old out on a date."
• The editor of Breitbart said something like there is only one relationship that Moore had that was problematic. Apparently, Breitbart needs more than one "problematic" molestation to make it significant.

You get the idea. And so will every woman in the country. The backlash among women, especially educated and working women who have to regularly put up with harassment will be massive in 2018. But, for Republicans, there are those tax cuts for the mega-rich that need passing.