On Sunday, Judge Roy Moore made another idiotic mistake during his campaign for Alabama’s Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
While addressing a campaign rally, Moore argued that only divine intervention could unite the nation—a well-worn political sentiment expressed by presidents such as Abraham Lincoln.
But Moore said the wrong words. He used language considered politically incorrect at best and extremely offensive at worst. Foolishly, the frontrunner in the Alabama Republican primary assumed his enemies wouldn’t read his words outside of context to paint him a racist.
“We were torn apart in the Civil War — brother against brother, North against South, party against party,” Moore said in a video first reported by The Hill. “What changed?”
“Now we have blacks and whites fighting, reds and yellows fighting, Democrats and Republicans fighting, men and women fighting.”
Some in the media and many of Moore’s enemies understandably pounced on the terms red and yellow as slurs against Native Americans and Asians. They ignored, however, what the septuagenarian Moore, albeit in-artfully, was trying to communicate.
“What’s going to unite us?” Moore continued. “What’s going to bring us back together? A president? A Congress? No. It’s going to be God.”
There’s no white supremacy expressed here, no argument made against equality, and no condemnation of anyone included. If Moore is a racist, then more evidence is required. Instead, the judge expressed the exact opposite, specifically, that a benevolent God could bless a country with national unity.
Does this excuse Moore’s language? No. Aspiring members of the world’s greatest deliberative body should get into the habit of, well, deliberating. Moore needs improvement in this area.
The judge has offered stupid opinions in the past, for instance, that the Sept. 11 attacks were divine retribution. And he has displayed surprising ignorance, for instance, and as we first reported, about the Dreamers and the DACA program. Moore’s attempt to deflect controversy by pointing to the colors red and yellow coming up in a Sunday School song was another childish gaffe.
In the Senate, the judge would be expected to consider everything from financial regulations to foreign policy. Rigorous analytical reasoning, not a simple rhyme scheme, will be required.
Embarrassing in D.C. though, Moore’s colorful remarks probably won’t be consequential in Alabama. Most voters will look at the candidate’s words in full context. If Moore wins on Sept. 26 though and if he wants to be a unifying agent of divine change, then Moore should speak in a way respectful of all those he hopes to represent.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
