The news that the Republican National Committee is now fully embracing the candidacy of Roy Moore in the Senate race in Alabama elicited shock and horror among some political observers. GOP pollster Matthew Dowd insisted that Republicans will now have “zero moral authority” to attack Democrats accused of sexual harassment. CNN’s Chris Cillizza agreed, suggesting Republicans had put “winning at the core of what your party believes.”
But what if Republican operatives are betting that President Donald Trump has so degraded our politics that there simply won’t be any party-wide political price for embracing Moore? What if they turn out to be right about this?