So, even setting character aside, the myopic focus on one Senate seat in Alabama, as if that is the last Senate seat we will ever hold an election for, is quite foolish. Elections don’t happen in a vacuum. If Moore is seated, it’s likely the GOP will lose more than one seat elsewhere. And the cycle will continue, but with even more scandal and poorer-quality appointments.

If the tribal right decides that a politician’s personal life doesn’t matter for voting, why even voice support for those values at all? Are values only for the plebs? Is Congress on a higher plane of existence where the natural consequences of sin cannot touch them?

I’m not saying that only choir boys with a squeaky clean record should be elected. But the inconsistency between values for leaders and what the rest of us are supposed to live by will grow more and more stark. Without enforcing moral standards, the Right and Left will become just two sides of the same grimy coin. Who cares whether it comes up heads or tails; we’ll all pay the price in the long run.