Winning strategy

Alabama’s new senator saved the nation from further descent into political depravity.

Consider it poetic that massive voter turnout in cities such as Birmingham put Doug Jones over the top in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election in Alabama.

It was in that city where Jones, a Democrat, successfully prosecuted KKK members who had murdered four young girls in the infamous 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

If that was all Jones had accomplished, there would be no arguing that he had lived a life of public service and earned his place in our history books.

But this week he stepped up yet again and helped the nation avoid a continuing descent into political depravity by vanquishing an aspiring theocrat and alleged child molester — Republican candidate Roy Moore. The entire nation would be stained by the election of a man who has lamented the end of slavery, called for the criminalization of gays and lesbians, questioned the rights of women to vote and twice had to be removed from office for his refusal to adhere to the U.S. Constitution.

The Republican Party, too, has been saved from itself as Moore’s defeat helps to relieve the deadweight of a potential senator hounded by allegations of pursuing sexual relationships with teenage girls while he was in his 30s.

The next step should be a delay on major votes in the Senate until Jones is seated. This was the process that Republicans demanded, and Democrats provided, after Scott Brown was elected in a Massachusetts 2010 special election.

The parallels of that election are hard to avoid: a victorious underdog and harbinger of a coming political wave.

Plenty of Texas Democrats have already pointed to Alabama as a sign that they can win statewide. We’re not so sure. Jones’ nail-biter victory doesn’t heal whatever political sickness allows a man like Moore to become the top choice in a Republican primary and end up a few thousand votes away from the U.S. Senate.

Visions of a Hispanic wave turning Texas blue remain a mirage, while African-American voters have long been a part of Alabama politics.

And, for all the potty politics that have dominated our state over the past year, no candidate has been revealed as an alleged child molester.

That’s not to say Texas Republicans shouldn’t worry. Their ranks include a veritable rogues gallery of men like Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been indicted for fraud; Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller of “Jesus Shot” infamy and U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, who paid $84,000 of taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment claim.

Republicans and Democrats alike should use their party primaries in March to filter out the extremists and unqualified. But as in Alabama, it’s going to take robust turnout — something elusive in Texas — early next year if we’re going to elect true public servants.

Plenty of Texas Democrats have already pointed to Alabama as a sign that they can win statewide. We’re not so sure.