In a week where countless Americans reported feeling aghast at professional athletes taking a knee while the national anthem plays, it turns out that pro football players may have a strange ally in Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore when it comes to viewing America as a place that’s deeply flawed.
In August, The Guardian newspaper dispatched a reporter to Alabama to cover the run-up to the Republican primary in the US Senate race, and to ask some questions about Conservatives’ embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Talking to Moore, reporter Adithya Sambamurthy asked Moore how he thought Ronald Reagan would feel about this strange turn of events. Moore didn’t take the bait, saying that he couldn’t speak to what Reagan might think. Then, this:
[Guardian] He said that Russia was the focus of evil in the modern world.
[Moore] You could say that very well about America, couldn’t you?
So is Roy Moore with Colin Kaepernick on this one? Well, probably not. The core issues driving each man are very different, as one seeks to push the country toward racial equality, and the other is obsessed with limiting Americans’ civil rights.
But it’s shocking nonetheless to see a senate candidate tell a British reporter that he believes that America is a force for evil. If Alabama Republicans are looking for a candidate who doesn’t think America is the focus of evil in the modern world, they’re going to need look further than candidate Moore.