Well thank you. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. :)
I didn’t understand exactly what Hannity was going for when he was trying to pin Moore down into the not dating teen girls thing.
Normalacy bias. He had no experience with this idea of older men dating younger girls. He is from New York city, and such things were likely frowned upon in his life experience. It's the differences in the culture, the time and the place, and Hannity didn't grasp that quasi-rural Alabama had different acceptable cultural mores at the time. Also the sub culture of evangelical types tend to encourage this sort of pairings because some of these people literally believe they have to do things as the people in the bible did. I've talked to evangelical types that are literally off into the fringe when it comes to getting a girl with "purity."
the good judge should have been prepared, and should have dealt in some cards of truth. MOORE CHOSE NOT TO.
I think he was just unprepared to deal with the fact that people would condemn him for dating young teenage girls. Like I said, some of these religious types believe they have a responsibility to find a young pure girl to take as a wife. After Moore got back from the war and law school, all the women his age were either taken, divorced, or undesirable. Didn't leave many options for a wife.
There is only one reason not to admit to dating teens above the age of consent and not strongly denouncing the accusation of statutory rape. Smoke, fire, and all that. At least that is what his equivocating responses lead to.
Roy's reticence at discussing his dating of teenagers left that impression, yes. He was literally caught in a situation that he didn't grasp until the trap had already sprung on him.
I don't think the two serious charges against him are true. The two accusations claim the very opposite behavior, and the second accusation has three witnesses that refute it strongly. The first accusation also doesn't make any sense, and some of the details related by the accuser have been found to be misleading or incorrect.
Your assessment is RIGHT ON!
Before and during the 19th century, it was not frowned upon considered immoral, or unusual for 18-19 year old young women to be married to slightly older men regardless of political views, and even across New England USA.
It was not average, but it was not unusual at all.
Life expectancy was dramatically less than today!
Today, moral boundaries have fallen, and most individuals are not spiritually or morally grounded. At the same time, children and young adults across society today are much more protected.
As a result, young adults have not had to learn to survive, or carry the true adult stress and maturity of past generations.
While there are clear moral limitations, in my opinion, it is a truly false and gross historical illiteracy which cannot grasp recent generational norms, because of current norms and bias.