The good news is that Christian theocrat Roy Moore isn’t a senator from Alabama just yet. In last night’s primary, Moore was unable to clear the 50% hurdle that would have given him the GOP nomination outright. He’ll face (appointed) GOP Sen. Luther Strange in a runoff next month. (Moore-Strange sounds about right for this election.)

The bad news is that Moore got nearly 40% of the votes (to Strange’s 32%) and is in very good position to win the nomination and the seat (vacated by Jeff Sessions) this December.

You thought Ted Cruz was conservative? At least he pays lip service to the Constitution every chance he gets. Moore doesn’t give a damn what it says because the first words are “We the people” and not “In the beginning, God…”

Moore first gained national notoriety more than a decade ago as the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court when he installed a Ten Commandments monument in the courthouse in the dead of night and refused to remove it. He was later removed from the bench… only to be voted back in years later. More recently, he was suspended again after telling probate judges they didn’t have to issue same-sex marriage licenses despite those marriages being legal.

He thinks America is evil because we allow same-sex marriage, wrongly believes U.S. cities are ruled under Sharia law, and thinks evolution has “ distorted our way of thinking.”

When a judge has that much contempt for the rule of law and science and facts, you have to wonder how much damage he could do in the Senate. There’s been a lot of chatter about how there are no norms in politics anymore in the Donald Trump era, but Moore doesn’t have any respect for the institution he wants a seat in. Imagine the damage he could do in the Senate.

Luther Strange is no doubt conservative, but he’s not in the same circle of Hell. The question now is whether Moore has hit his ceiling in terms of support. Will Republicans who didn’t vote for him last night come together to support Strange? Will Democrat Doug Jones have a chance against either one?

Jeff Sessions ran unopposed in 2014 and won 63% of the vote in 2008. That’s when Barack Obama was on the ballot and Democrats should have been out in full force. They’ll have to do much, much better than anyone would predict to win. But who knows how far down Trump will drag the GOP in a few months when the election happens. Maybe even people in Alabama can come to their senses by then.

