San Francisco News Conference today - “Why I would vote for Judge Roy Moore” - Conservative columnist Andy Martin

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Announcement of San Francisco news conference Monday, November 13

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Attention: national daybook/assignment and political editors

November 13 San Francisco news conference details:

Who:

Conservative columnist/blogger Andy Martin explains why if he lived in Alabama he could vote for Judge Roy Moore for U. S. Senator

What:

Andy says that Alabamians can safely vote for Judge Roy Moore for U. S. Senator

Where:

San Francisco sidewalk news conference, location pending, details from Andy cell phone at (917) 664-9329

When:

Monday, November 13, 2017; 5:00 P.M.

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Andy Martin says Judge Roy Moore’s behavior must be understood in the cultural context of rural Alabama forty years ago

Andy says that while deplorable and reprehensible by modern urban standards, Moore’s behavior forty years ago was not unusual for rural communities across the nation

Andy “writes a letter” to Alabama voters

(San Francisco, CA) (November 13, 2017) New Hampshire and national corruption fighter Andy Martin, who is in San Francisco to celebrate fifty years as an independent national security and intelligence analyst, will hold a San Francisco news conference today to explain the Judge Roy More “sex” scandal in the context of rural Alabama cultural norms forty and fifty years ago. Andy writes a letter to Alabamians to help them place the allegations against Judge Moore in cultural context:

Dear Alabamian:

The most difficult assignment today is to defend Judge Roy Moore against the attacks lodged against him by several women and published by the Washington Post. I don’t have any special or secret knowledge about the truth, and I will leave it to others to raise the issue of the political motivation of the Washington Post. But I am qualified to make a defense of Judge Moore on cultural grounds. “Culture” places events and actions in historical context.

In the past several months we have seen attacks on Christopher Columbus, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for their actions hundreds of years ago. When we try to interpret events hundreds of years ago through a modern cultural prism the result is total distortion and inaccuracy.

First, let’s start with two basic principles: what is acceptable behavior in one era may become unacceptable years later.

Second, let’s start with our own common knowledge as to place and time. Here are some representative examples: (i) when I went to college in the 1960’s it was not at all unusual for professors in their 30’s or 40’s or even older to date students. They were not punished for their behavior. (ii) In my high school it was not unusual for college freshmen and juniors to date high school girls who were seniors and sometimes even juniors; I went to high school in Middletown, Connecticut. (iii) When I was a law student in the 1960’s and began watching the local legal community in a small town in Illinois, it was not unheard of for young attorneys to hang out with older teenagers.

Third, let’s take a look at the cultural norms in small town Alabama forty or fifty years ago. It was not unheard of or unusual for men in their twenties or early thirties to date much younger women. The “revolution” of the 1960’s came much more slowly to the rural South. Even when I drove through the south, stopping in small towns, in the 1980’s, the “culture” of modern America was slow in arriving.

Today we have a “national” culture and national cultural norms which flow from a national media headquartered in New York and Washington. People in big cities and small towns see and hear the same media, whereas forty or fifty years ago both media and cultural norms and attitudes varied widely from urban areas to small towns and from region to region of the nation. No longer.

Now, let’s look at the accusations against Judge Moore. Let’s divide the accusers into two (2) groups, the older teenagers and the 14 year-old girl.

If the accusers themselves are to be believed, Judge Moore did nothing wrong with the three older women. They were past the age of consent and they do not even allege any improper physical activity. It is difficult today to imagine a lawyer playing around with teenagers, but I saw it coming up as a law student in more than one small town.

So what do we convict Moore of? Being a small town lawyer that “dated” several younger women. I wouldn’t have done it, even back fifty years ago, but it was not uncommon in the legal and medical profession. When you place Roy Moore in the cultural context of rural Alabama forty years ago, Moore  comes off as a bit of a gentleman. If anything unlawful “took place” the women have not even alleged any such behavior.

The accusations lodged by the underage girl are more problematic. But even there, placing her accusations in the context of her own unsettled life raises serious doubts about the truth of her allegations. I do not want to attack the girl personally because she is a victim whether her charges are true or false. She has led an unsettled life and that could well affect her recollection of events forty years ago. My guess (and  it is only a guess) is that Moore dated her but that he did so after she was sixteen. Moore was quite careful to confine his “dating” to women over 16; as a lawyer, he knew better.

So what are we left with? Three women with whom Moore’s behavior was quite lawful and, in the cultural context of 1970’s rural Alabama not that unusual. We are left with one accuser who has had a troubled life and whose time-line may not be accurate even if the events are.

The Washington politicians make several accusations of their own: (i) The accusations against Moore are so scandalous that an accusation is enough to convict; (ii) The accusations against Moore are so scandalous that he can be thrown out of the senate, see Powell v. McCormick, 395 U. S. 486 (1969). The claim is nonsense. (iii) I really hate to raise the specter of Ted Kennedy in this context but if we reflect on his behavior, the “morals of the senate” are a lot lower than senators pretend. I know. I worked in the U. S. Senate and have worked in Washington for half a century.

Judge Moore has not been the best witness in his own behalf. “Defendants” seldom are. And Moore does not comport with my own cultural behavior, forty and fifty ears ago (I was fighting for women’s equality at the Federal Communications Commission). So my standards have always been immeasurably higher. But my standards were and are my own; I am not preaching to rural Alabama of the 60’s and 70’s. I do, however, have vast experience in cultural analysis because culture is often critical to foreign policy and intelligence analysis.

I am also a congressional candidate in New Hampshire, and I know that attitudes, behavior and practices have always varied noticeably even among the New England states. But what I have always deplored, and what I deplore today is the hypocrisy of our national leaders and our national media trying to sit in judgment on events that may have taken place forty years ago.

Mitt Romney has said that the “presumption of innocence” does not apply in the political arena, and he’s right. But the benefit of the doubt always applies, and I chose to give the benefit of the doubt to Roy Moore. Even as a Republican candidate myself I don’t necessarily agree with many of Moore’s views and political opinions. But he deserves a fair hearing and he has not received one.

Finally, as a Republican, you cannot ignore that your vote would tip the balance of the senate against President Trump at a time when he is struggling to make reforms.

I know it is not an easy task to go against the common wisdom of the moment, as ginned up by the national media, but if you balance what Moore is accused of doing forty years ago against the potential damage to our national political agenda, I do not find it difficult to vote for Judge Moore. There is a reason the accusations against him have been sitting fallow for forty years. They do not survive the scrutiny of searching and impartial inquiry, and he should not be judged on the basis of the hypocrisy-of-the-moment in Washington today.

Respectfully,

Andy Martin

To contact Andy in San Francisco: (917) 664-9329

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LINKS TO THIS STORY (cut and paste the entire link below and not just the underlined portion):

[1]

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/in_defense_of_judge_roy_moore.html

New citations after emailing:

ANDY MARTIN - A BRIEF BIO:

Andy Martin is a legendary New Hampshire-based muckraker, author, Internet columnist, talk television pioneer, radio talk show host, broadcaster and media critic. With forty-nine years of background in radio and television and with five decades of intelligence, investigative and analytical experience in Washington, the USA and around the world, Andy provides insight on politics, foreign policy, military and intelligence matters. For a full bio, go to: www.AndyMartin.com; also see www.BoycottABC.com/executive_director.htm

Andy has also been a leading corruption fighter in American politics and courts for fifty years and is executive director of the National Anti-Corruption Policy Institute. See also www.FirstRespondersOnline.us; www.AmericaisReadyforReform.com.

He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York (LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC).

He is the author of “Obama: The Man Behind The Mask” [www.OrangeStatePress.com] and produced the Internet film “Obama: The Hawaii’ Years” [www.BoycottHawaii.com]. Andy is the Executive Editor and publisher of the “Internet Powerhouse,” blogging at www.contrariancommentary.wordpress.com and www.ContrarianCommentary.com.

Andy’s family immigrated to Manchester, New Hampshire over 100 years ago; today his home overlooks the Merrimack River and he lives around the corner from where he played as a small boy. He is New Hampshire’s leading corruption fighter and Republican Party reformer.

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