How Could Herschel Walker be a Viable Senate Candidate & What it Says About the GOP

There was a very funny piece in The Onion this week in which fictitious Georgia voters gave their reasons for voting for Herschel Walker as Georgia's next Senator. Some examples:

“His incoherent ramblings on the issues really speak to me.”

“He’s living proof of the American dream of running a grift while having a personality disorder.”

“I like his moderate stance on whether it’s okay to hold a gun to your wife’s head.”

The piece got me thinking about the Senate race in Georgia. Walker is running against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and recent polls show Walker is only trailing Warnock by a couple of points according to FiveThirtyEight. Of course, those polls were completed before we knew that the vehemently anti-abortion Walker had paid for a former girlfriend's abortion and before Walker's son had informed us that his father had threatened to kill various family members. But even without those two tidbits of information, how could any rational voter support Walker? There's been a constant drumbeat of stories cataloging his appalling personal history and ignorance concerning the most important issues facing the nation.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: "He remains neck-and-neck with Warnock despite a string of damaging reports about his violent history, lies about his law enforcement experience, academic record and business background, and confusing statements on the campaign trail."

Despite all this, his hypocrisy on abortion, and the new revelations from his son, Walker still has an outside chance of winning in November and that says something quite chilling about the new Trumpified version of the Republican Party; winning is everything no matter how much you have to debase yourself in the process.

The Bulwark: "Walker’s own son, Christian, called out the rank hypocrisy here: “Family values people: He has four kids, four different women. Wasn’t in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women,” he said on social media. “Do you care about family values?”

In a piece for his newsletter The Weekly Dish, Andrew Sullivan summed up what this all says about today's Republican Party.

Sullivan: "Walker shows that there is no principle they will not jettison, no evil they will not excuse, no crime they won’t “whatabout,” and no moron they won’t elect, if it means they gain power. There is degeneracy among many Democrats, sure. But the Republican party is defined by this putrescence. Burn it down."

The good folks at the Bulwark also made a good point this week about how that will impact the 2024 Presidential election.

The Bulwark: "The GOP’s reaction to the news that Herschel Walker paid for a girlfriend’s abortion is less a revelation than a reminder of what the party has become."

"It’s also a preview of what will happen in 2024."

"If you have any doubt how the rules of politics have changed, or that the GOP will rally around Donald Trump again — no matter what he does or says, or whether he has been indicted — watch how this is playing out."

If Trump decides to run in the coming months there's little reason to believe that he won't win the Republican nomination for President. Despite his role in the January 6th insurrection, ridiculous and harmful claims of a stolen election, sexual assault allegations, business chicanery, theft of secret government documents, and twin impeachments, recent polls show him far ahead of the other likely GOP candidates. He has more support than all the other potential candidates put together.

So, it's not all that surprising that someone like Herschel Walker is thriving within the GOP. The Trump wing of the Republican Party [nearly the entire GOP at this point] simply doesn't give a damn about a candidate's character, intelligence, virtue, or experience. They are quite willing to accept any bodies thrown their way as long as the candidates declare fealty to Trump's bizarre stolen election delusions, promise to ban abortions, dump on immigrants and the LGBT community, and toss around some Bible verses and a bit of climate change denial.

#news #politics

By: Don Lam & Curated Content