Donald Trump; Corey Booker (Credit: Getty/Nicholas Kamm/AP/Mel Evans/Salon) It’s easy to over-interpret this week’s political earthquake in Alabama, which was an anomalous situation that can’t be replicated anywhere else. But history is shaped by anomalies, and from the Republican Party’s point of view, this one wasn’t anomalous enough. Unless you believe there will be no future electoral contests between Republicans with right-wing fringe ideas and checkered personal histories, and Democrats who appear to be fundamentally decent and reasonable people. What happened in November 2016 was anomalous too, shaped by dozens of seemingly marginal factors that wove themselves into a horrible harmony.