Herschel Walker, the GOP and Donald Trump

I had no desire to write about the unfortunate Herschel Walker and his blemishes of conduct and character. Nevertheless, his prominence on the GOP landscape of 2022 seemed to deserve comment.

I will not reprise Walker’s record of various moral failures. It has been widely reported and, in a phrase familiar to lawyers, res ipsa loquitur: the thing speaks for itself. Apart from that dismal history is the inescapable fact that Walker bears no discernible qualifications to be a United States Senator. He has no record of accomplishment, commercial, civic or political, to suggest that he would make any serious contribution to that body.

Walker’s sole assets are his past ability on the football field and attendant fame, and the sponsorship of Donald Trump. Indeed, Walker is an exemplar of a Republican class of candidates for the Senate and House in 2022 that is remarkable for its stunning lack of qualifications. In the Senate, even Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a master of strategic silence, acknowledged his concern. As Jennifer Rubin reported in the Washington Post:

While other Republicans are humiliating themselves by smiling alongside incoherent Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, McConnell concedes candidate quality is a worry. “So it was clearly a problem in 2010 and 2012,” he told CNN. “Whether it’s a challenge, whether it’s fatal or a big problem this year, we’ll find out.” Yikes.

McConnell made the weakest possible defense of Walker, whom he backed in the Republican primary. His argument essentially came down to sunk costs: “I think we’re going to stick with Walker and all the effort we put in through [the Senate Leadership Fund], we’re going take it all the way to the end.”

Other Republican have not only stood by Walker but, for the most part, have shown no embarrassment in doing so. Of course, after several years of servitude to Donald Trump, it is not clear what, if anything, it would take to embarrass Republicans. In any case, Republicans have made it clear that, for them, Walker’s qualifications are quite irrelevant: the only thing that matters is that if he wins, his victory might give them control of the Senate. What they would do with such control—other than try to make life miserable for Joe Biden—is unclear. In any case it is a bargain to bring a blush to the cheeks of a Faust.

The GOP field in the House is hardly more attractive. As documented by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, “Think you already know crazy? Meet the House GOP Class of ‘22,” it is replete with nominees for whom the kindliest description may be Milbank’s “exotic.” Milbank offers numerous examples, of whom a couple may suffice:

There’s the woman from North Carolina who was accused of hitting one husband with an alarm clock, trying to hit another with a car (and also menacing him with a frying pan) and punching her daughter. She denies that, though she also invoked a conspiracy belief that alien lizards control the government.

There’s the man from Ohio who lied about his military record, lavishly promoted QAnon themes, acknowledged bypassing police barriers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and with 120 gallons of paint turned his entire lawn into a Trump banner.

The Noah of this bizarre ark of candidates is of course Donald Trump, who has selected or endorsed some and inspired others. Louis XIV once boasted “l’etat c’est moi,” and Trump would be justified in claiming that “The Party is me.” While that is depressing enough for those of us who have, or did have, a long association with the Republican Party, it is not as frightening as what may lie ahead. If Trump is re-elected in 2024, there is little doubt that he will move aggressively toward Louis XIV’s evev grander vision. Just how he might do that was described in a Washington Post Magazine article, “What Will Happen if Trump Wins Again? Experts Helped Us Game It Out.” It describes in chilling but credible detail an authoritarian regime with few restraints to its exercise of power.

I urge readers to consult the Post article. It will provide a strong antidote for any who are inclined to complacency or the thought that “Things have always worked out, so they probably will this time.” It is, I am very much afraid, not necessarily so.