Roy Moore isn’t directly saying he’d like to bring back slavery, but he doesn’t seem to be averse to it. In 2011, when the host of a far-right conspiracy-theory radio show suggested that it would be good to repeal all of the amendments to the Constitution after the first 10—which means amendments abolishing slavery and giving women the right to vote, among others—Moore didn’t disagree:
"That would eliminate many problems," Moore replied. "You know people don't understand how some of these amendments have completely tried to wreck the form of government that our forefathers intended."
Moore cited the 17th Amendment, which calls for the direct election of senators by voters rather than state legislatures, as one he particularly found troublesome.
The host agreed with Moore, before turning his attention to the 14th Amendment, which was passed during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War and guaranteed citizenship and equal rights and protection to former slaves and has been used in landmark Supreme Court cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and Obergefell v. Hodges.
"People also don't understand, and being from the South I bet you get it, the 14th Amendment was only approved at the point of the gun," the host said.
"Yeah, it had very serious problems with its approval by the states," Moore replied. "The danger in the 14th Amendment, which was to restrict, it has been a restriction on the states using the first Ten Amendments by and through the 14th Amendment. To restrict the states from doing something that the federal government was restricted from doing and allowing the federal government to do something which the first Ten Amendments prevented them from doing. If you understand the incorporation doctrine used by the courts and what it meant. You'd understand what I'm talking about."
It would eliminate many problems to wipe out amendments prohibiting slavery and guaranteeing equal protection under the law and allowing people of color and women to vote. Moore may not be saying anything here we couldn’t already have guessed from his blatantly unconstitutional behavior as a state judge, but still. Wow. This man could be in the United States Senate soon.
The position of “worst person in the Senate” has been hotly contested for a while now. If elected, Roy Moore would settle the debate without any question.