Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

Alabama Is a Race Worth Losing for Democrats

Just because you can't win doesn't mean you shouldn't play.

Moore's Law.

Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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The Democratic candidate for Senate in Alabama, Doug Jones, will almost certainly lose the Dec. 12 election to replace Jeff Sessions, the former Alabama senator who is now U.S. attorney general. Jones is very likely to lose despite running against Roy Moore, a practicing theocrat who was thrown off the state Supreme Court for defying federal law on same-sex marriage.

Moore had previously gained notoriety, and the adoration of far-right religious chauvinists, for his performance art. He mounted successive installations of the Ten Commandments at a public courthouse to make a point about the subservience of public law to Christian doctrine.