… I have closely studied Winston County history and have long been proud of my ancestral ties. I wanted to explore whether traditional Republicanism could fully explain how the Old South’s most independent thinkers became Trump zombies willing now to send a plausibly accused pedophile to the Senate rather than a Democrat. …
Alabama’s much-ridiculed preference for officials regarded as unfit by the rest of the nation is embedded in tradition, but Mr. Trump’s success argues that this is now a national tic. He won with the tools that have cast spells on Alabama voters for two centuries: race, religion, hysterical oratory, intimidation of critics and economic three-card monte dealt by big-business hand jivers.
In a sense we are all Alabamians now, wincing when sophisticates abroad satirize our willingness to be beguiled by abnormality. CONT.
Howell Raines, New York Times