How did paedophilia become part of America’s ongoing politico-cultural war? Is this how bitter and degraded the debate has become? If you thought that the election of Donald Trump was a measure of how far trust in America’s established political system had broken down, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

A new race – this time the Alabama Senate by-election – reveals that Trump’s victory has not soothed the anger of many voters. Far from it.

When a recording was released last year of Trump bragging about sexual assault, some hopeful Democrats thought it might derail his campaign. On the contrary, many of his core voters thought it a perfect example of establishment conspiracy and “politically correct” agenda against which they wanted to rebel so strongly.

Trump dismissed the recording as “locker-room banter”. But Roy Moore, Republican candidate in Alabama, is now accused of far worse than that – paedophilia.

Moore is alleged to have initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32. Women have since come forward with serial stories of a creepy older lawyer who was always trying to get dates with high-school girls; one alleged that he sexually assaulted her when she was 16.

This is ordinarily the part of the story where the disgraced politician quietly bows out of the race in America’s favourite public humiliation ritual, the press conference. But Moore has not left the race. The 70-year-old is not spending more time with his family, finding God, asking for forgiveness, seeking therapy or entering a rehabilitation facility. When asked about these allegations, his memory fails him.