To quote Thomas Jefferson from “Hamilton”, “Can we get back to politics?” For the majority of last semester, I have stayed away from talking about politics because I haven’t had the time to keep up with what’s going on in the news. 

However, some news has been so unbelievable that I simply cannot refrain from making my opinion known. The senate race in Georgia has the same vibe as reality television.  

Since we as a human race misplaced our critical thinking skills in 2020, people like Herschel Walker can run for political office. 

This man is such a brazen and terrible liar. I don’t understand how he can have any real support to continue running in the race. Before I break down this absolute hot mess of a story, let me give you some context. 

Just being Republican is not enough to be worthy of a senate seat or of a vote. 

Herschel Walker is the current Republican nominee for the 2022 State Senate Elections in Georgia. He was an NFL football player for twelve seasons before serving on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition under President Donald Trump.

On the surface, none of this is bad. However, his political beliefs are so inconsistent that you get whiplash hearing them. For example, his stance on abortion is constantly shifting. Multiple news sources have reported that he has a stringent stance on abortion, even opposing abortions in rape, incest, or the mother’s health. 

It’s beginning to seem as though his money is not where his mouth is. A woman, who remains anonymous, came forward saying that Walker paid for her to have an abortion. She provided the receipt, the check, and a card he sent her. 

While not all of this has been conclusively linked to Walker, that doesn’t mean he’s off the hook. The check has Herschel’s signature on it, and in a recent interview, he admitted the check and the signature were his. 

His son, Christian Walker, said that his father doesn’t have any Christian values saying,” four kids with four different mothers, and he wasn’t in the home raising one of them.” His son also tweeted, “Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office because we all knew (some of) his past.”

These claims are pretty damning, in my opinion. However, it gets worse. It seems Herschel Walker also has a history of domestic violence, with Christian Walker adding on Twitter, “You’re not a family man when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over six times in 6 months running from your violence … how DARE YOU LIE and act as though you’re some moral, Christian, upright ma’ …You’ve lived a life of DESTROYING other people’s lives.”

His son Christian isn’t the first person to make these claims. Other women in other relationships have reported that Herschel is a violent partner, and police have been called regarding incidents involving Herschel. 

And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding his lies and deceptions. He is quick to speak about absent fathers in the black community when, by all accounts, except his own, he is an absent father. As the saying goes, don’t throw stones in a glass house.

What does it say about the state of our democracy that someone getting caught lying about their high school graduation, college graduation, values, and political views can get this far in reaching for power? 

Worse still, the race for senator in Georgia right now is a close one. It’s unbelievable that anyone could turn a blind eye to this man’s big and bold red flags and look at him and think, “I would trust this man to make policies for the 10.5 million people living in Georgia.”

Don’t get me wrong, I am pro-life, and I support pro-life policies, but it couldn’t be more clear that Herschel Walker is full of crap and doesn’t believe in saving unborn lives.

His character seems as upright as a wet spaghetti noodle, and I feel very similarly about Donald Trump. 

When talking to many of my Christian friends, they said things like, “Well, how can you know someone’s character if you don’t know them personally? He could be a great guy.”

Well, friends, I am happy to tell you that I try to make deductions based on their actions. Cheating on your wife with a porn star and then paying hush money doesn’t seem upstanding to me. Off the top of my head, there is the January sixth incident, the Mar-a-Lago incident, his destabilizing our democracy through claiming election fraud, and more. 

What bothers me so deeply as someone who does hold some republican values is that these are the people who are thought of as “Republican.” It should be about living out what you preach. It should be about small government and personal freedoms. However, it’s becoming less and less about that. 

I don’t think we should vote for someone just because they are Republican. Even if I were a Democrat, I wouldn’t vote for them just because the candidate is a Democrat. I want to be choosing my candidates based on their character and the policies they promote. 

Just being Republican is not enough to be worthy of a U.S. Senate seat or even a vote. 

Disappointingly, the race in Georgia is still very close even though there is nothing to say that Walker is fit for a senate seat. His opponent, Raphael Warnock, only has a 4% lead over Walker. 

This race matters. I want the people in power to be reasonable, sensible, and of good standing. I want them to promote the values of truth, liberty, and justice for all. What does it say about the state of our democracy that someone getting caught lying about their high school graduation, college graduation, values, and political views can get this far in reaching for power? 

It’s so profoundly disappointing. 

I honestly have no idea what to do about it, either. Is it the media? Is it a societal change that we need? I have no idea what we can do to stop our country from heading in this direction. 

As a young person growing up in this political climate and this economy, I have some real concerns about my future. I can’t be the only one who worries that revolution might be on the horizon as the tension in this country grows and grows. 

The party lines are getting thicker, and polarization is increasing. And the race between Herchel Walker and Raphael Warnock is just a case study of what the American political climate is looking like. 

It’s comparable to the conflicts we see even with the Republican party. Compare Rep. Liz Cheney with Congresswomen Marjorie Talor Greene. It is the opinion of this humble writer that we are about to see some significant shifts resulting from Trump’s presidency and his divisive nature, and Walker’s campaign for the senate is just one of those effects.