In Defense Of Herschel Walker

Going into Tuesday’s runoff in the Georgia US Senate race we all heard the same narrative: it was going to be a blowout for Raphael Warnock and that Republican Herschel Walker didn’t have a prayer.

And it wasn’t going to just be defeat for Walker but the margin was going to be ten to twelve points. I came to believe the narrative myself and expected the worst.

Yet when the votes were tabulated, with the usual and inexplicable pause in reporting in Democratic strongholds such a as DeKalb County, it turns out that Walker had traded the lead with the far better funded Democratic incumbent most of the night before the usual suspects counties finally showed up in force.

Perhaps the doom and gloom that carried over from the despiriting November 8th results hung over the runoff or that the anti-Walker echo chamber became so deafening that it seemed that investing into Walker was essentially chasing good money after bad.

That defeatism proved both contagious, self-fulfilling, and in the end the fatal difference.  And while GOP grifters we’re preparing their damnation sermons for Tuesday night the average Republican outside of the political class dutifully showed up on election day and kept Walker in the game.

Yet with half the resources of Warnock and the entire media against Walker, the Heisman winner was poised for a major upset.

But as usual Republican quisling voices of profile busily trashed their fellow Republican on the eve of the election as if they had money on a Warnock win.

While doing some volunteer work on the ground in the Atlanta suburbs, I had the chance to not only watch this college and NFL football star interact with voters but also met him.

I encountered a humble sincere man who aspired to be a servant of the people and advocate for the values that reflect many Georgians.

Walker wasn’t polished but that shouldn’t be a prerequisite for public service. What he did have was a unique perspective as someone from outside of the political class.  And that was Walker’s real “problem”: he wasn’t like the other politicians, something I consider a virtue and not a liability.

Democrats declared a jihad on Walker as they could ill afford the embarrassment of the alleged party of white supremacy having two black members in the US Senate while the Democrats, that supposed gumbo of multiculturalism, only had Cory Booker- who has his own groping background.  I’d be embarrassed too if Booker was my representing just about anything.

Ironically we all saw the shrieks from Democrats and their confederates in the media about claims that Walker pushed abortion on women he had impregnated.

And here we were all told that abortion is a sacred private matter yet there they went shouting Walker’s accused financing of abortions. You’d almost swear the Democrats had a problem with the termination of pregnancies!

But the most grotesque aspect of the Democratic bombardment of Walker was the free license they gave for personal attacks on his intelligence that would’ve been decried as racist had Republicans hurled similar invectives against a black Democratic candidate legitimately deserving of such ridicule.

Walker never thought Guam was ever in any danger of tipping over.

The Warnock operation gave a pass for white Democrats to live out their suppressed bigotry at a target of convenience. They could be applauded for saying thinly veiled racist comments out loud about Walker free of consequence.

Worse yet black Democrats were cajoled into joining the dog pile on Walker, because supporting a black Republican makes one a traitor to the community.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask the 78 year old mumbling white man in the Oval Office who said as much while running for president.

And yet nobody had a word of criticism for a man who was an ally of US Senators whose record on civil rights is such that their names are being removed from public buildings.

The Democrats would’ve never stood for such besmirching of the name of Willie Horton but Walker was the star of their ten minutes of hate played out during a year long campaign.

And as for whether Walker was the strongest candidate, Republicans should go talk to the proprietor of Mar a Lago who somehow convinced David Perdue, who barely lost his Senate seat two years before, to fly kamikaze with his political career against Republican Governor Brian Kemp in the primary instead of taking another crack at the US Senate.

It should be noted that the targeted Kemp did more to get Walker in striking distance than anyone else.  The needless primary fight against Kemp only led to money being flushed down a proxy grudge race when the party should’ve been unified from the start to defeat both the election denying Stacy Abrams and Warnock.

But alas the GOP is habitually a party that cannot get out of the way of its own self.

Walker owned up to his loss like a man and with class projecting none of the bitterness that would’ve been understandable considering what he was subjected to. I don’t know what kind of man he was but we got a chance to see the man he became.

While the concept of redemption might be beyond the grasp of an increasingly anti-Christian Democratic Party cloaked with false prophets like Warnock, there’s plenty of people who go to church not just for appearances on the right who get it and saw that virtue in Walker.

I hope Walker stays engaged and considers other electoral options while working on his political techniques.