You don’t have to agree with every stance a politician takes. But if a politician wants to gain the endorsement of tellthetruthonthem.com they have to earn it with their actions. Keep the words integrity and courage in mind as you read this endorsement of Alabama’s junior Senator Doug Jones.
Of the twelve Democrats defending their Senate seats in 2020 Jones is by far the most vulnerable. In fact as I have been periodically projecting the final 2020 outcome I have counted that as the one flip from blue to red. To say he is looking at a tough race is an understatement!
You didn’t need to be one of the great political prognosticators of the 21st century to know that the Senate was not going to remove Donald Trump from office last week. Since Trump is very popular in deep red Alabama the politically safe vote for Jones would have been to vote not guilty. The Democrats were only able to swing one Republican Senator and then on only one of the two counts. Going into the vote there was no predictable scenario where they could garner the 67 votes needed to remove. Therefore if Jones had played it safe he would have suffered no retribution from his Party; in fact he would have been given a free pass from his fellow Senate Democrats and the national organization.
Jones is a man of integrity and courage. This was not the first time he did the correct, albeit unpopular and politically dangerous, thing. His most daring act was as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during the Clinton administration when he sought and obtained the convictions of two Ku Klux Klan bombers of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963 that left four young girls ages 11-14 dead. It was common knowledge that these men were responsible for the bombing that took place several decades earlier. The Klan is still popular and powerful in Alabama. The easy and safe thing to do was simply ignore the old crime like many had before him. Because he is a man of integrity Jones did the courageous and correct thing.
In 2017 Jones narrowly won a special election to fill the remainder of Jeff Sessions’ term. He defeated a credibly accused child molester and statutory rapist who had twice been removed from the bench for violating the law. With that flawed of a Republican candidate the Democrat (Jones) only squeaked out a win, such is the current political atmosphere in Alabama.
Jones is a middle of the road guy and certainly not a pure progressive. Reality check for my left leaning readers: a pure progressive is totally unelectable in Alabama in 2020. With that in mind here is a brief recap of several of Jones’ stances.
Jones has received a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood.
On the difficult issue of guns Jones’ position, while not perfect, is something progressives can live with from an Alabama Democrat. He is for, “…tighter background checks for gun sales and to raise the age required to purchase a gun from 18 to 21.” Unfortunately he does not currently support banning automatic weapons. His reasoning is that he doesn’t think you can currently get that regulation into law. Unfortunately with Trump holding the veto pen I have to agree with Jones’ analysis of the situation.
He supports same-sex marriage and generally has a progressive record on LGBT issues.
Jones opposes repeal of Obamacare and supports CHIPs. Particularly of late Democrats are wasting a lot of time and energy debating a path to health care access for all; Jones is supportive of the destination and not obsessed with the route.
On the economic front and defending the masses the most telling vote to me is Jones’ against the Trump Tower Tax Cut which benefited a very few who didn’t need the help and did little or nothing for the masses in a few cases actually hurting John Q. Public.
No he is not Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or AOC, but his total electorate and constituency is in Alabama. In full knowledge of his significant underdog statues but with respect and recognition of his character telltheturhonthem.com enthusiastically endorses Doug Jones for election to a full term in the United States Senate from Alabama.
This article is the property of tellthetruthonthem.com and its content may not be used without citing the source. It may not be reproduced without the permission of Larry Marciniak.