I have good news and bad news about Alabama

First, the good news: Holocaust-denying, white nationalist, atheist nutjob Larry Darby lost the Democratic primary for Attorney General in Alabama.

Now the bad news: He somehow managed to garner 43.53% of the vote. His opponent got 56.47%. It wasn't close, but it was a hell of a lot closer than I thought it would be. I once expressed amazement that such a crank could get 12% support in an opinion poll; now in the primary he somehow managed to get over 40% of the actual vote.

I guess that it just goes to show that in some places in this country, a bit of white nationalism and anti-Semitism can almost overcome the extreme handicap of being an atheist candidate.

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Remember one general rule for assessing the motives of people: never attribute to maliciousness that which can be attributed to ignorance. I suspect that most Alabamians (Alabamistanians, as some like to say) didn't know about Darby's wacko views. I'm afraid that sort of igonrance would be fairly common in most places, even outside Alabama.

By Mark Paris (not verified) on 08 Jun 2006 #permalink