Dance Of The Hour

I confess: I did the Happy Dance.
I confess: I started looking for results before noon Pacific Time.
I confess: I was worried.
In an election all the way across this great land of ours in which my influence mattered less than Channing Tatum and Charles Barkley, I felt like I had a lot to lose if things didn't go a certain way. If Roy Moore had been elected, the deep red that is Alabama might as well have been tattooed on maps for another thirty-one years. That would have exacerbated the narrow divide in the United States Senate and given more clear control to Republicans, who at this point control the House, the Senate, and the White House. Numerically speaking. Ideologically this whole kettle of fish was starting to smell, well, a little like a kettle of fish.
Add to this mix the mild spice we find in the form of Doug Jones. In all my fervor to point out what a bad choice Roy Moore was, I may have ignored the chance to point out the qualifications of the Man Who Would Be Junior Senator From Alabama, Senator Doug Jones. As a U.S. Attorney from 1997 to 2001, he prosecuted the remaining two Ku Klux Klan perpetrators of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing which killed four African-American girls in 1963, and also secured an indictment against the Atlanta Olympic Park Bomber. He has referred to his own views as "middle of the road." Others have called him a "moderate Democrat." In 2017 Alabama, that is significant. Running against someone who believes "a strong family based on marriage between one man and one woman is and should remain our only guide and model. I oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, civil unions, and all other threats to the traditional family order," and "We should not be entangled in foreign wars merely at the whim and caprice of a President." Not sure exactly how Roy Moore would have reconciled that last one with the fight the current "President" has picked with North Korea, but I guess we won't have to worry about that right now.
Because he lost. Doug Jones won. For the record, the "President" backed Luther Strange in the Republican primary for this election, and then decided to get behind Roy Moore when he became the candidate of his party. In this particular race, Donald Trump backed the wrong horse. Twice. He and his minions have scurried to distance themselves from this loss, stating that it was in no way a referendum. 
And yet, I confess: I did the Happy Dance.