I'll cut to the chase: I think
After all, I called for conservatives to repudiate Moore, the
That's the nature of the Moore defense I'm hearing, not just from folks on Twitter and via email, but from prominent politicos and pundits. It's all just a hoax perpetrated by people who don't want to Make America Great Again.
I would say it's a terrible argument, but calling it an argument is too generous. Here's Breitbart honcho
"
This is typical of Bannon's demagogic style. Because the Post is allegedly out to get Moore, not only can we not believe what the Post reports, we don't have to credit what any of the people talking to the Post on the record actually said. It's a kind of motivated reasoning that lets audiences connect dots and reach conclusions unsupported by the facts.
Bannon uses lots of adjectival nouns -- "
The most telling detail is Bannon's claim that the Post "dropped a dime" on Trump with the "Access Hollywood" tape. Translation: They're snitches!
But here's the thing: Snitches may or may not be bad people, but what makes people hate snitches is that they tell the truth. A snitch, by definition, is an informer, not a liar.
And the one fact Bannon leaves out of his innuendo-drenched word salad is that the "Access Hollywood" story was actually, you know, true. Trump said what he said -- on tape -- in his own words! Whether he was lying when he talked about sexually assaulting women is a different question altogether.
That said, I'm entirely open to the idea that the Post is out to get Moore. But reporters' motives aren't nearly as important as people think.
Both the Post's reporting and victims' testimony are persuasive for reasons widely discussed. But there's one point no one has made: If these women were willing to lie, why not go all in and say they were raped, or insist Moore wouldn't take "no" for an answer? In for a penny, in for a pound, after all.
But perhaps most damning are Moore's creepy denials. When
That's an odd thing to say if you never dated teenagers.
Moore and his defenders are counting on the fact that his supporters don't want the allegations to be true. And, shamefully for all concerned, it's working.
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Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and editor-at-large of National Review Online.