The Larger Impact of Herschel Walker on November's Elections

[Tom Rinaldo]

He will lose. He would have lost even without the current round of scandals, but conventional wisdom says they won't cost Walker many votes, if any, from core MAGA voters. That's probably true, but that isn't what matters. Voter attitudes may already be fully baked inside Georgia, which has had a front row seat to the Walker circus for going on a year. Elsewhere in the nation Hershel Walker isn't a literal choice on the ballot for who to send to Washington, elsewhere Herschel Walker increasingly is emblematic of the Republican brand. For vast swaths of the country, in the suburbs in particular, that Republican brand is getting one final look at. For months now Donald Trump has defined that brand. Now Hershel Walker is starting to edge into that picture also. He represents incompetency, he represents hypocrisy, he represents a moral void, and in all of those things he reinforces the branding Donald Trump has already bequeathed Republicans among all but MAGA extremists.

Top that by the fact that Herschel Walker now embodies the one thing Republican strategists want further from the mind of swing voters, moderates and independents as they head to the polls than Donald Trump himself, and that is the issue of abortion. The rallying of National Republicans to Herschel Walker's side only cements Walker as an emerging face of the Republican Party. It was a grave mistake on their part to do so. Walker optimally served Republican interests as a local anomaly best discussed in Georgia only, a local Football icon in a region that goes bonkers over College Football. Now Hershel Walker is the national Republican Party. Knowing all that we all now know about Herschel Walker, Republicans proudly still stand with him. And there you have the current brand of the Republican Party in America, power for the sake of power, lies for the sale of lies. And that will have an impact on every race on November's ballot nationwide. It won't matter everywhere, but it will matter in enough places to make a real difference for Democrats.

[magicarpet]

1. Flawed human beings being paraded as viable national political candidates,...

.... by the new Republican Christo-Fascist Party.

A raw quest for absolute political power,... American Democracy be damned.

[Simeon Salus]

2. Of course, flawed human beings being paraded as viable national political candidates...

...is what happens every time, on both sides.

That's the problem with hiring human beings, a friend once told me.

Every freakin' one of us is a mess.

On the other hand, it certainly seems Republicans tend to pick candidates because their flaws specifically reflect the party's true values (or lack thereof).

[jimfields33]

5. So true.

I wish I were as perfect as I think I am. People think they’re better than they are. I think it’s just a thing that comes naturally or behaviorally or some thing.

[70sEraVet]

3. Great post. Ironic, that the GOP is killing itself to back a ridiculous candidate in Georgia

so that they can break the 50/50 split in the Senate, and by doing so, they are endangering the campaigns of other GOP Senate candidates. So, they WILL succeed in breaking the 50/50 split -- just not the way they planned.

[underpants]

4. DeSantis Martha's Vineyard- Herschel - Tuberville

A trifecta of unforced errors. I can’t imagine these help them in anyway in other elections across the country.

[Walleye]

6. And he's just enough of a celebrity to intrigue the national tabloid press