Sanity in the age of Trump

Some real news for y’all: In a repudiation of President Trump and the creep he backed, deep red Alabama has elected a strong new Democratic senator — and rejected a fringe creature whose campaign cast as liars women who credibly recounted his sexual advances on their teenage bodies.

Tuesday night’s special election victory of Doug Jones over Roy Moore is proof that, even in a state where Republicans have a built-in 20-plus-point advantage, even in our throughthe-looking glass age, well-reported facts can matter. Anti-Trump enthusiasm matters. Decency matters. Candidates matter.

Jones’ victory would not have happened without record turnout from black Alabamians.

Moore’s deep flaws aside, it would not have happened without a national wind that’s blowing stiffly against Trump and what he’s doing to our politics; exit polls showed even approval-disapproval for a President who won the state last year by 28 points.

It would not have happened without Republicans who stood up against the slime, like Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Alabama’s senior Sen. Richard Shelby, who announced Sunday that he would write in a candidate because “I couldn’t vote for Roy Moore” — a decision that seemingly influenced 23,000 other voters to do the same. Moore fell short by almost exactly that margin. It would not have happened without the dogged reporting of the Washington Post journalists who got wind of Moore’s stalking conduct.

And it would not have happened without the women who courageously came forward to share long-ago memories despite the inevitable attacks from Moore’s dead-enders.

Now it’s down to business in the Senate, where exactly when Jones will be seated remains a question mark sure to be punctuated by Alabama Republicans eager to stall the election’s certification.

Likeliest he’ll be sworn in early January as the Democrats’ 49th vote, supercharging the urgency already felt by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to rush through a rotten tax overhaul before the New Year rings in.

That bill, which will lavish gifts on the wealthiest Americans and explode the federal deficit, has yet to have a single substantive hearing or credible Treasury Department analysis.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says hell no: wait for Alabama’s newly elected senator to replace the appointed one currently serving.

That would be the responsible way to proceed. Of course, McConnell is stepping on the gas.