Ah, October. ’Tis the season for cooler temperatures, scary movies and shameless political stunts meant to change election outcomes.
The latest victim of an attempted October Surprise is Georgia Republican senatorial candidate, professing Christian and football legend Herschel Walker, a pro-life absolutist accused in a Daily Beast “bombshell” article of paying for a girlfriend’s abortion in 2009.
The left’s attempt to exploit this revelation — which Walker denies — betrays a profound misunderstanding of conservatism, and for that matter, Christianity.
Hypocrisy-revealing gotchas are like mother’s milk to leftist activists. Playing the hypocrisy card is a well-worn page in the Democrat playbook, but it became well-worn for a reason — It used to be somewhat effective. There was a time when cowardly conservatives would have run for the fainting couches upon hearing such a revelation, pearls firmly clutched. Those people still exist, but their number and their influence are waning.
Somewhere along the way, an inescapable fact emerged — these stunts rarely work anymore. Politicians are flawed creatures who lie as easily as breathing, a fact baked into the cake of the body politic, and such revelations are hardly shocking anymore.
As much as he smashed other accepted political “norms,” Donald Trump obliterated the effectiveness of the October Surprise once and for all by surviving the Billy Bush “p—-y” tape. The mother of all October detonations was supposed to rid us of this meddlesome reality star once and for all. Instead, Trump essentially ignored the noise and kept grinding all the way to the White House.
As for the hypocrisy charge? Try looking in the mirror, leftists. We’re all hypocrites who fail at one time or another to live up to our own standards; some of us are just more willing to admit it. Joe Biden, one of the more profoundly indecent figures in American political history, ran and won on a platform of restoring decency — despite a record littered with lies, personal attacks, plagiarism and corruption. His public charade continues unabated.
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article for this site listing sports figures who should enter politics along with some who shouldn’t. Included in the piece was Walker, about whom I wrote: “At the 2020 Republican National Convention, Walker gave a far more eloquent defense of Donald Trump’s character than Trump himself ever has, or ever could hope to. Walker exudes class, something that’s missing from today’s politics, and he’s a legend in his home state. You listening, Georgia GOP?” I stand by that assessment.
Yes, Walker is a flawed candidate. His lack of rhetorical polish has made its way onto Saturday Night Live; his checkered personal life (multiple out-of-wedlock children and a messy divorce from his first wife) is hardly worthy of emulation.
His relationship with his son Christian, a gay conservative social media activist, is strained, and that’s being kind. Christian piled on in the wake of the Daily Beast revelation with a blistering tweet in which he said, “[H]ow DARE YOU LIE and act as though you’re some ‘moral, Christian, upright man.’ You’ve lived a life of DESTROYING other peoples lives. How dare you.”
Walker’s reply: “I LOVE my son no matter what.”
Like other Christians, Walker isn’t perfect, just forgiven. And unlike his opponent, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (who has relationship issues of his own), Walker’s flaws don’t include an embrace of destructive Green New Deal policies, or out-of-control spending, or abortion-until-birth absolutism, or prepubescent gender reassignment.
Once upon a time, William F. Buckley proffered this sage approach to the voting booth: Support the most conservative candidate who is also electable. In the Georgia Senate race, that candidate is still Herschel Walker.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.