If Republican candidate Roy Moore wins the upcoming Senate election in Alabama, more women and children will be abused, because sexual predators will feel more supported, powerful and emboldened to exploit and attack more women and children.
If Roy Moore wins, more women and children would be abused by predators because the election would punish courageous women who took the risk to reveal abuse in the hope that other women and children might not endure similar abuse.
{mosads}One of the reasons we are surprised by the shocking number of abuse cases being revealed is that we underestimated the degree that women felt pressure to not report abuse, which is understandable but tragic.
One of the great benefits that a victory of Democratic candidate Doug Jones over Roy Moore would bring is that women who are now being abused by predators would feel supported, empowered and protected if they come forward.
A great tragedy and scandal of a Moore victory would be that women in danger of being abused today would witness voters of Alabama honoring, supporting and rewarding the man accused of abuse of women and children with a seat in the United States Senate.
If Moore is elected, the voters in Alabama would give credibility and power to a man who labels the women with the courage to speak out as liars and frauds. In Moore’s version of events, every one of these women is lying!
In Moore’s warped world, all of these women come forward in a conspiracy involving the liberal media or the Senate Republican leader, depending on which falsehood he chooses to peddle at a given moment.
Any woman who came forward alleging abuse by Moore, if true, was victimized once by Moore. She was victimized a second time by an ugly campaign in which she is being personally and viciously attacked. If Moore wins, the accusers would be victimized a third time, by voters of Alabama who elected the man who committed this abuse, then denied it, then called the victims liars and frauds because they revealed the abuse.
Consider the children. One of the most horrible crimes imaginable occurs when a predatory man abuses a defenseless child. There are good reasons every jurisdiction has laws about the age for consenting participants to engage in sex. I don’t know any that permit a “thirty-something” male to have sex with a 14-year-old girl.
If Roy Moore wins, there will be predators who will feel even more emboldened to commit their vile acts against children; youngsters who depend on the grown-ups to protect and defend them from the abuse.
It now appears that President Trump, rather than speaking out with honor against Moore, has been persuaded to tacitly support him. If this proves to be the case, it would not be surprising.
It would be reprehensible and astonishing to witness a president who has been recorded on tape bragging about his abuse of women and has been accused by a number of women of committing predatory acts against them, supporting a candidate charged with a barrage of highly credible allegations of abuse from highly believable women.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe Roy Moore will lose on Dec. 12 because large numbers of Alabama women and the men who love them will turn out to vote for Jones. But I could be wrong.
The Alabama election is about decency versus indecency; right versus wrong; tolerance versus intolerance. It is about whether courageous women who challenge abuse will be honored, supported and empowered or whether those who abuse them will be rewarded with more power and fame.
If Roy Moore is elected, there will be secret cheers in dark places from evil people who may someday abuse your mother, wife, sister or child.
If Doug Jones is elected, there will be cheers from decent people everywhere, and a new era will be confirmed in which sexual abuse is not tolerated by any person, against any person.
Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.