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With Sessions scandal, the Alabamafication of America is complete
Source: al.com, by Kyle Whitmore
Ball caps included! However - remember! - before it's too late! - "the grass don't grow where the sun don't shine!" (see Luv Guv's gleaming pate) 
Last summer, when Alabama completed its Unholy Trinity of political scandals, I wrote a warning to our fellow countrymen: Don't let this happen to you. I meant to sound an alarm against the Alabamification of America (a phrase which Drew Pendergrast at the Harvard Political Review last week took a lot further than I had).
At the time, our governor was under investigation (he still is) for abusing his office while pursuing a love affair. Were he to be impeached, that state House proceeding would have been led by a speaker then under indictment (now convicted and gone) and the trial in the Senate that followed would be led by a Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who was likely to be removed from office, again, by the Court of the Judiciary (he was and is now gone, at least until he runs for Senate).
At the heart of it, the Alabama Problem is a simple one to explain: When the majority party fails to hold its own to the same -- or preferably, higher -- standards it holds the opposite party, corruption and incompetence are inevitable. And when citizens treat their respective parties with the same reverence as college football teams and they excuse away the sins of their politicians like recruiting violations or so many $100 handshakes, they give those officials license to lie, cheat and steal.
For such a long time, the corruption of Alabama politics was something we thought we had under control, or at least, contained. Our graft, buffoonery and ineptitude had become a Dixie Ouroboros, too busy eating itself to hurt anyone else. Or so it seemed. But then the slimy serpent of Alabama corruption unclenched its fangs from its own backside and slithered to more hearty climates in the Washington swamp it now calls home.
At the time, our governor was under investigation (he still is) for abusing his office while pursuing a love affair. Were he to be impeached, that state House proceeding would have been led by a speaker then under indictment (now convicted and gone) and the trial in the Senate that followed would be led by a Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who was likely to be removed from office, again, by the Court of the Judiciary (he was and is now gone, at least until he runs for Senate).
At the heart of it, the Alabama Problem is a simple one to explain: When the majority party fails to hold its own to the same -- or preferably, higher -- standards it holds the opposite party, corruption and incompetence are inevitable. And when citizens treat their respective parties with the same reverence as college football teams and they excuse away the sins of their politicians like recruiting violations or so many $100 handshakes, they give those officials license to lie, cheat and steal.
For such a long time, the corruption of Alabama politics was something we thought we had under control, or at least, contained. Our graft, buffoonery and ineptitude had become a Dixie Ouroboros, too busy eating itself to hurt anyone else. Or so it seemed. But then the slimy serpent of Alabama corruption unclenched its fangs from its own backside and slithered to more hearty climates in the Washington swamp it now calls home.
Read the sordid tale at: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/03/the_alabamafication_of_america.html#incart_river_home_pop
8 replies
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That's just not normal.
