If the Herschel Walker campaign can be distilled into any one thing it would be that it’s all tied together with ugliness, a dark cloud. According to Joe Scarborough, it makes the campaign a perfect lab to experiment as to how low the MAGAs will go.
If one simply limited the evaluation of Herschel Walker’s candidacy to his past business failures there would be a sketchy background filled with accusations of fraud and mismanagement. In a normal race, that would be a significant hurdle, probably insurmountable. Walker mowed right over the very substantial past business failures and cons to then deal with allegations of domestic abuse that went well beyond a “one-time disaster day,” it was a recurring pattern that Walker seems to lump in with mental health a little too conveniently. But it’s his open, in your face religiosity juxtaposed against the real record that is perhaps, definitive. Walker likes to claim that he’s “redeemed” and thus forgiven for all he’s done. Fine. But until three days ago, he was carrying around a big lie about his real views on abortion, to the point Walker was called out by his son for his destructiveness. Redeemed in his faith is entirely different than redeemed by society to the point he deserves a U.S. Senate seat.
Ugly. And Scarborough says that it’s this ugliness that makes it the perfect test of MAGA willingness to go as low as needed to “own the libs.”
“All of this comes even before we get to the fact that Republicans understand he’s not qualified to be a senator. He doesn’t know the issues. He can’t talk about any issues in a way that’s cogent, that makes any sense whatsoever, This is almost the perfect lab experiment on just how low Republican voters are willing to go to quote, ‘own the libs.’ It’s not worth it.”
Oh yeah. There is that. He doesn’t know a thing about government or the issues the Senate faces. Of course, that is hardly limited to Walker, one can say the same about Sen. Tubberville or want-to-be Senator Mehmet Oz, though – admittedly, Walker takes the lack of understanding to a different level. One cannot say that about Walker’s opponent, the Ebenezeer Baptist pastor who doesn’t shove his faith any one’s face, is one of the true intellectuals in the Senate and a caring individual who isn’t making excuses for anything.
But Scarborough’s unique observation is worthy of consideration. Yesterday, Magee Haberman told Nicolle Wallace why Trump loved the Walker campaign so much:
“It’s the lowering of the bar and the erosion of the bar. Trump wants to show that nothing matters. To show there are no red lines anymore always makes him happy.”
It is the gateway to autocracy. The more Trump’s MAGAs abolish the rules, the less the rules count. The old rules would have wiped Walker clean prior to the primary. But the old rules assumed some standards, enlightenment, that there was something sacred to protect. This new environment, as Scarborough says, is a litmus test as to whether there is anything substantive to elections, or whether fealty to a movement is now all that matters.
It’s a subtle observation, one that should be strongly considered going into the last month of the campaign. Do the MAGAs have any limits anymore? Or are they all-in on the cult of personality and autocratic tendencies? We will find out. Remember, Walker isn’t up against just “anyone.” He is running against a star. The race hangs in the balance. Test, indeed.
@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.