The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson –

The ghosts of Jefferson Davis and George Wallace must live in the old capitol building in Montgomery.

How else to explain why the fundamentalist Christian Republicans who somehow control all three branches of the state government still in the most retrograde state in the Union managed to pass a law banning abortion that is so offensive it was even opposed by televangelist Pat Robertson and inspired Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager to go on television to declare that even Trump opposes an abortion law that does not include an exception for rape and incest?

During an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday, Trump’s campaign manager Kayleigh McEnany said she disagreed with Alabama’s decision not to allow exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape and incest. The law will permit abortions only if the mother’s life is at risk.

“You know, I personally am for the exceptions,” McEnany said. “The president has been clear since the last campaign he’s for exceptions for rape and incest and life of the mother.”

When asked if the president would openly criticize the law, McEnany said she didn’t know, but reiterated that “he’s said repeatedly he’s for those three exceptions.”

Though the issue dominated headlines this week, Trump remained uncharacteristically silent, according to the Washington Post. But other antiabortion conservatives have spoken out that the Alabama law goes too far. Those include televangelist Pat Robertson, who called it “extreme,” and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who said it “goes further” than what he believes.

Is it time to move Alabama’s state capital to Birmingham and build a new capitol building for the 21st century?

What is it about Montgomery that inspires a focus on the past, not the future?

A few years back when I was in town to cover another dangerous, retrograde move by the legislature, I came away thinking that Montgomery was designed in the horse and buggy days, when you could ride your horse right up to the capitol and tie up to a ring on a pole and carry your gun right into the chamber. Those rings on poles are still there.

Senate Committee Considers Open Carry Gun Law

Of course even the most ardent supporters of the open carry gun bill would not be for that now. You have to go through a metal detector to get in the newer State House across the street from the old capitol and you can’t even get in with a small pocket knife.

Oh the hypocrisy of governing. If these white men who seem obsessed with the past want people to be able to carry guns in stores, parks, work places and even schools, why not the halls of the State House? If more guns make us more safe, why does that not apply to where they work?

A few years ago when I made the foray to Montgomery to try to bring some sense and courage to the press corps in the place when the Republicans were on the verge of denying funding for Medicaid, I walked through the old capitol building to the governor’s office to make sure then Governor Robert Bentley was aware of our opposition to this attack on the program for the poor, old, young and sick. I wanted to make sure his staff printed a copy of this op-ed and placed it on his desk where he couldn’t miss it.

Open Letter to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley – Please Fully Fund Medicaid

The tactic worked. Bentley changed his tune and got onboard the campaign to save Medicaid funding, calling a special session and urging the legislature to find the money. They did, even though it took the misuse of BP oil spill lawsuit settlement money to save it.

Alabama Legislature Bends: Finds Last Minute Compromise to Save Medicaid

While I was walking through the historic building, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, I stopped to talk to a few tourists to find out why they traveled all the way to Montgomery to see the place.

I ran into a couple from Germany, and when I asked them why they came, the man said something about how important the place was for standing up for the white race and preserving slavery.

Somehow I don’t think people go to Berlin because it was the capital of the Nazi’s Third Reich, but hey, I could be wrong.

The capital was established in Montgomery in the 1840s after Alabama became a state in 1819, probably because it was a convenient location for the cotton plantation owners in the Black Belt.

Well, it’s not convenient anymore.

And the most economically viable city in the state is now Birmingham, even though the money and power in Birmingham is in the white flight suburbs, not downtown.

Is it possible that even the rich folks in Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Homewood and maybe even Hoover and Trussville could be unified in a campaign to move the capital to Birmingham?

Such a grand economic development project could save the city and the state from the backwardness of Montgomery, and free legislators from the debilitating influence of the ghosts of Jefferson Davis and George Wallace.

At the very least it seems worthy of public debate. What do you all think?