America breathed a sigh of wearied relief tonight: less a moment of political exultation, and more one borne of the sense that an (allegedly) pedophilic bullet had sailed right over our heads, as multiple outlets reported that Democrat Doug Jones had defeated his opponent, God-and-brown-people-fearing Republican judge Roy Moore, for an Alabama senate seat. The thing about racist bullets, though, is that they don’t just vanish; they keep going.
It was an undoubtably weird scene in the Moore camp, full of language about the power of God and awkward hymn singing from some clearly nervous teenagers, as everyone waited for their man to arrive and formally end his campaign. (The bizarre vibe wasn’t helped by the fact that Breitbart, the only outlet directly covering what was supposed to be a concession speech, insisted on filling all the non-action moments of its broadcast with what sounded like elevator music piped directly from hell.)