GOP deserves to die over Moore response

A sorry culmination of two terrible trends

You may have thought Republicans had sunk as low as they could possibly go last year when they nominated for the presidency a man who was singularly unfit, morally and mentally, for that post. But, no, once you start racing to the bottom you never quite stop. There is always another level of degeneracy to be plumbed.

Enter Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama. He believes that “homosexual conduct should be illegal” and that Muslims should not be permitted to serve in Congress. Now, based on 30 sources, The Washington Post reports that this fearless crusader for “traditional values” had a habit of propositioning underage girls when he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. One accuser said he fondled her at 14 after undressing both of them to their underwear.

You don’t have to be the parent of teenage girls — which I am — to be deeply disgusted. Yet Moore is utterly unrepentant. He simply waves off the allegations, claiming, “This garbage is the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation.”

On his Twitter feed he has the gall to write, “Our children and grandchildren’s futures are on the line. So rest assured — I will NEVER GIVE UP the fight!” He even has the audacity to send a fundraising appeal claiming the Post article is evidence that “the forces of evil are on the march.”

So far, to their eternal discredit, Moore’s GOP backers in Alabama appear to be sticking by him. Paul Reynolds, the Republican national committee man from Alabama, told The Hill that he doesn’t trust the Post: “If I’ve got a choice of putting my welfare into the hands of Putin or The Washington Post, Putin wins every time.” State auditor Jim Zeigler cited Mary and Joseph — “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus”— and concluded, “There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”

Republicans in Washington are slightly less gung-ho, but most aren’t calling on him to leave the race and threatening to endorse his Democratic opponent if he doesn’t. President Trump’s statement, via his press secretary, speaks volumes: “The president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside."

Some Republicans, including Mitt Romney, John McCain and John Kasich, have recognized that the presumption of innocence applies to criminal defendants, not political candidates, and urged Moore to step aside. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has withdrawn from a fundraising agreement and at least three senators had withdrawn their endorsements by Sunday. But too many are still hiding behind “if these allegations are true,” as if the Post account weren’t convincing.

This episode is the sorry culmination of two trends that have disfigured the conservative movement beyond all recognition: contempt for the facts and desire to win at all costs. Republicans are increasingly reliant on “alternative facts” manufactured by the likes of Fox News and Breitbart, which claim that global warming isn’t real and neither is the Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee. The real scandal, they tell us, is the Steele dossier paid for by the Democrats in an attempt to uncover Trump’s Russian connections. Or is it the evidence-free claim that Obama supposedly wiretapped Trump?

In the final analysis, no indictment of their candidate will convince the faithful. As Trump once said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Or, more to the point, Roy Moore could molest a 14-year-old girl and not lose votes. Because for Republican partisans, their opponents are “the forces of evil,” and anything is preferable to that. Even Donald Trump. Even Roy Moore. So in ostensibly fighting evil, Republicans have become complicit in it.

This is a party that does not deserve to survive.

Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is author of the forthcoming The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam.