Una elezione in Alabama

Charles Bethea, Jubilation at Dough Jones’s Headquarters, The New Yorker, 13 dicembre 2017

At 9:33 P.M., Michael Graffeo, a sixty-five-year-old white Alabama Circuit Judge, ran out of a private room at the Doug Jones headquarters, in Birmingham, with his hands in the air. The race had just been called for Jones. “I have known Doug Jones since 1978,” he said. “He is a wonderful human being. A dream candidate. And this is so important for the state of Alabama. So important. And so important for the people who are thirty, forty years old. Stay here, come here. Our arms are open to all of you!” He paused. “I shouldn’t say this, but I oversaw the first same-sex marriage here. This is a big moment for this state. More to come!”
Jeff Karsh, from Santa Fe, came to Alabama a week ago to volunteer. Upon hearing the results, he began to cry. He held a sign aloft. “THIS IS WHERE IT HAPPENS,” it said. “To know that I helped to do this, for our kids, for our future, this means a lot, says a lot about people,” he said, wiping away tears. “Our ability to recognize what‘s right.”
Devon Crawford, an African-American native of Birmingham and a grad student at the University of Chicago, was dancing to Usher and Lil Jon‘s “Yeah!” “They wouldn’t be playing this if Moore won,” he said. “This is a great moment for Alabama. I flew in today from school to vote. I made some phone calls from Chicago. I was mostly on the outside looking in. But, as a young black man, this means to me that there are actually people who care about and vote on issues, not just party lines: criminal-justice reform, equitable income to the poor. It shows that we are actually able to elect people that care about an agenda for people and by the people. We’re breaking up white supremacy here.”
The basketball star Charles Barkley, meanwhile, was dancing to “Sweet Home Alabama,” looking deliriously happy. What did he have to say? “Yes!”
When Jones took the stage for his victory speech, the crowd erupted. He announced that it was his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and then he gave a short speech. “I’ve been waiting all my life, and now I don’t know what the hell to say,” Jones told the crowd. He gathered himself. “We have shown the country the way we can be unified,” he said. “This campaign has been about dignity and respect. It’s been about the rule of law. It’s been about common decency and making sure everyone in this state, regardless of the Zip Code you live in, gets a fair shake in life.” He closed by quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

https://www.newyorker.com/current/alabama-senate-race-roy-moore-doug-jones

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/where-roy-moore-has-gone-in-his-campaigns-final-days?mbid=nl_Daily%20121217%20Nonsubs&CNDID=49279735&spMailingID=12549791&spUserID=MTg2MTUwMzg0NDg3S0&spJobID=1301149001&spReportId=MTMwMTE0OTAwMQS2

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/the-image-of-alabama-as-the-bastion-of-pure-conservatism

NEW YORK – Clamoroso, il profondo Sud volta le spalle alla destra ed elegge un senatore democratico. Accade in Alabama, uno Stato che da decenni è una roccaforte repubblicana. In un’elezione suppletiva per il Senato, il candidato dell’opposizione Doug Jones vince, sia pure di strettissima misura, col 49,6%. Batte un repubblicano contestato anche da una parte dei suoi, screditato da scandali sessuali, ma sostenuto da Donald Trump. La sconfitta di Roy Moore col 48,8% è dunque una sconfessione dello stesso presidente. Inoltre questo colpo di scena assottiglia pericolosamente il margine di maggioranza dei repubblicani al Senato ridotto ormai ad un solo voto, il che significa che l’agenda politica di Trump è alla mercè di repubblicani spesso in dissenso con la Casa Bianca come John McCain o Bob Corker. (Federico Rampini)


http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2017/12/13/news/alabama_elezioni_vinte_dai_democratici_sconfitto_moore_il_contestato_repubblicano_appoggiato_da_trump-183955970/