No, not one

“IF WE’RE gonna do what we did the other day,” Robert Bentley, the governor of Alabama, tells his aide in a recently released recording, “we’re gonna have to start locking the door.” Explaining himself, Mr Bentley—whose 50-year marriage ended last year—apologised for his “inappropriate” remarks but, despite the tape’s evidence, denied any “sexual activity”.

Many Alabamians did not expect such antics from a folksy, septuagenarian deacon of the First Baptist church in Tuscaloosa, who has assumed stridently judgmental stances on marriage and abortion. In truth, they shouldn’t be surprised. Beginning in 1834, when a congressman shot himself after reading a letter from his wife to Alabama’s governor, the office has furnished a rich chronicle of marital strife, paternity suits and phone-tapping. And, in fairness, for all the outrage their peccadillos engender, the politicians are not exactly outliers in Alabama. To a startling degree—and for reasons that may shed light on the presidential race—it and other southern states combine conspicuous religiosity with widespread loucheness.

Alabama ranks third in the nation...Continue reading

Source: United States http://ift.tt/1VVlM5w

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