Speculation Mounting in Alabama Senate Race – Abortion, Black Christians

Carol M. Highsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Carol M. Highsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
It helps Republicans that Alabama is a conservative state.

Outside Alabama, the key issue being discussed in the Alabama senate race is the allegations that Roy Moore preyed on young women. However, within Alabama, the stakes depend not on his predatory nature, but on his record with race and abortion rights.

Speculation Over Key Issues in Alabama Senate Race – Abortion, Black Christians[/tweetthis]

African-Americans make up 27 percent of the total Alabama population. They have a track record of predominantly voting Democrats to the Senate. For most blacks, Doug Jones, the Democrat nominee, is the favored candidate. Race is a defining factor for most blacks. The end of the American Civil War saw the Black inhabitants of Alabama fiercely fighting for their rights. Modern civil rights struggle gained traction when in 1955, an African-American woman named Rosa Parks did not agree to sit in the back of a public bus in Montgomery. Birmingham city in the state was the most segregated metropolis in America during that time. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. even wrote about it, describing the city's brutality. Even now, the whites in the state are Republican, while blacks form the Democrat opposition.

For African-Americans, Moore represents the old racist guard. According to many, he is anti-black, anti-women, anti-Jewish, and anti-urban. The Blacks did not forget Moore's opposition to integration. He almost single-handedly killed the action to remove sections of Alabama constitution where it was compulsory to segregate schools and impose poll taxes. The former Justice was also a birther, meaning he believed that the then President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and thus not an American. He also said that Muslims must not be in Congress. In short, many Blacks believe that Moore wants to take the state to the slavery era.

Moore's election also depends on abortion rights. Alabama has a deeply religious and conservative electorate. Democrat nominee Doug Jones is unsure of obtaining votes even though he is clean of any predatory sex allegations. Voters are not confident with his liberal stance on a number of social issues like abortion. Seasoned Alabama pollsters say that the anti-abortion stance of Moore will be sufficient to win the election. The electorate of Alabama are seemingly uncomfortable with electing a person who has no regrets to -in their words- kill an unborn human child. Moore knows this, and he continues to stress on this aspect. The Republican nominee's allies have even made an advertisement in this regard.

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