Most here remember the beyond-the-grave condemnation of the current White House occupant by his now-departed teacher at Wharton: “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had!"
Wouldn’t it be interesting to get a former professor’s take on the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama?
Well, you’re in luck. Back in the mists of time (September), long before ShortEyeGate, before Alabaman Republicans went to the polls to choose between Luther Strange and Roy Moore, Mr. Moore’s former law professor penned an op-ed for Al.com urging his fellow Republicans to beware Mr. Moore and get behind Strange.
Remember, this is previous to "Moore" + “strange” gaining a very different connotation. Also note: Guy V. Martin, Jr., Moore’s former instructor, is very, very different from you and me. He is a deeply conservative Republican and devout Christian who, while arguing strenuously for separation of church and state, is okay with the thought of “converting every American to Christianity.” Not a Maddow fan, you might surmise.
Martin offered three arguments to his fellow conservatives against the election of Moore. The first is that Mr. Moore habitually falls into illogic and refuses to back down from his obviously incorrect views (sound familiar?).
In law school, the arguments arose from what Disraeli called "falling into a deep groove of illogic and being helpless to allow reason to pull you out." If Moore's analysis of a case was tantamount to thinking 1 + 1 = 3, and his classmates reasoned otherwise, there was no backing down by Moore. The class was willing to fight to the death against illogic that no legal mind but one in America would espouse.
Moore never won one argument, and the debates got ugly and personal. The result: gone was the fulfillment a teacher hopes for in the still peace of logic and learning. I had no choice but to abandon the Socratic method of class participation in favor of the lecture mode because of one student: Roy Moore.
Martin’s second argument stems from his understanding of the value of the First Amendment to everyone, especially believers.
As Chief Justice, Moore continued that trend. He violated years of precedent, established by Jefferson, who once wrote that he only hoped he could serve our country like Christ wanted him to. Yet, Jefferson fought to ingrain the principle of religious freedom in our Constitution, at a time of state-sponsored churches and religious persecution.If you were Baptist, your taxes supported other churches and you often were persecuted. If Moore's actions were lawful, a chief justice could flaunt Islamic or Buddhist icons in schools and authorize probate judges to deny marriage licenses to scarf-less women, as contrary to Sharia law.
...
Do we need God in America? Absolutely. Let Moore devote his life to converting every American to Christianity-I'm for that-and that still does not eliminate the risk of persecution, unless all are members of the same church. Baptists could be persecuted, just like they were before our constitution. Christian men smarter than Moore, including titans such as Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison, would use a far sharper pen in dealing with Moore.
Lastly, Martin argued, quite presciently, that giving Moore the nomination would cause grave damage to the conservative causes in which he believes. The very qualities Moore embodies—ignorance and an unyielding defense of same—guarantee the further erosion of the conservative brand.
In Washington, Moore would be Senator Irrelevant, the poster child for stubborn resistance to common sense legislation such as repeal of ObamaCare and decrease in taxes, standing on some piece of sideways' thinking nobody in or outside the Swamp would respect.
A vote for Moore will be a vote for Doug Jones and against the conservative cause.
My apologies if someone has already highlighted Mr. Martin’s Op-ed. I was not aware of it until a friend sent a link this afternoon. I thought it worth sharing here to illustrate that, whatever deep and unbridgeable differences we may have with our political opponents, there are some subjects on which we can, if we look, find common cause and common agreement.
One of those being the demonstrable unfitness for office of Roy Moore.