I want Judge Moore to be Guilty – That’s a Problem

Roy Moore shouldn’t be a US senator IMO; but he’s running for the senate from Alabama where I’m not a voter so my opinion doesn’t count. Until last week it looked like Alabama voters would elect him easily despite (or because of) the fact that he lost his job as chief justice of that state’s supreme court twice, once for disobeying orders to take the ten commandments down in the court house and a second time for refusing to recognize gay marriage. Public officials are not entitled to substitute their own opinions for law (although it is certainly honorable to resign rather than enforce a law you don’t agree with).

Now there are specific and credible (but not proven) allegations by five women that Moore abused them when he was in his thirties and they were in their teens. I was happy to hear the allegations and hope they are true so that he won’t become a senator.

I’m wrong to feel this way.

I want people to believe that he is guilty of the women’s charges so he won’t be elected senator; but I already didn’t want him to be elected because of both his fundamentalism and his previous disregard for the law. The women’s charges may well not be proven by election day; but I want him to be considered guilty anyway , not innocent until proven guilty. I want it to be impossible for Alabamans to make a decision I don’t want them to make.

Similarly many people I know and like want Trump to be guilty of colluding with the Russians so they can undo the choice the electorate made.

Other people would like Hillary Clinton to be guilty of various crimes, at least partly to prove that they were right not to vote for her. (Times change: Bill Clinton probably would’ve been removed from office for the Monica Lewinsky affair had it happened today. At least those allegations were true.)

Obviously, if Trump did collude with the Russians, he should be impeached; but I hope that he didn’t. If there was a real quid-pro-quo in contributions to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s acts as Secretary of State, she should be prosecuted; but I hope there wasn’t.

It adds to the danger of the times when we consider people guilty just on the basis of accusations because we want to criminalize our opponents.

But I still hope Roy Moore is defeated.