Morning Bits Republicans Blew It Again

Commentary

Why we should care well-nigh Herschel Walker

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker and a woman have a selfie during sometime Usa President Donald J Trump's "Save America" rally with David Perdue, Burt Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Vernon Jones in Commerce, GA, on March, 26, 2022. (Peter Zay/Anadolu Bureau via Getty Images)

To hear him tell it, Herschel Walker is a large laic in breaking the silence around mental health bug. Heck, in 2008, the sometime all-world running dorsum wrote a whole book, "Breaking Free," about his struggle with Dissociative Identity Disorder, a syndrome in which he exhibited a dozen singled-out personalities.

In the years since, he has consistently trumpeted this want to be candid near his mental issues, vowing that "greatest achievement of my life will be to tell the earth my truth."

That truth, co-ordinate to police records, court documents, and Walker's ain words, includes the following facts:

*A guess issued a protective gild against Walker, and law removed a gun from his possession, after he allegedly made repeated threats to impale his ex-wife. She recalls him maxim, "I'm going to blow your f---ing brains out."

*Walker talked well-nigh "having a shoot-out with police" later on officers were summoned to his abode to investigate a domestic disturbance. The cops removed a handgun from his possession.

*Walker routinely played Russian Roulette with guests to his home. "I accept a bullet," he told ii sports talk radio hosts, "put information technology in the cylinder, spin it and tell you lot to pull it. People would say 'Herschel, you're nuts.' I would accept that gun, put information technology to my head, and snap it. That is what it was."

Herschel Walker interacts with former president of the U.s. Donald Trump prior to Game Iv of the World Series betwixt the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves Truist Park on Oct 30, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Michael Zarrilli/Getty Images)

This kind of impulsive assailment is typical of former football players suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a brain illness caused by repeated hits, which the NFL acknowledges afflicts up to a third of its former players.

To be clear, I am not saying that Walker has CTE. There's no way, at present, to determine that. But information technology's difficult to watch Walker in his few public appearances and escape the determination that he is suffering from some form of cognitive decline. Consider this brief and indecipherable statement, posted on Twitter:

"Build back improve. You probably want something written, like police force of the land, stating all men are to exist treated equal. Oh! We have the Constitution. And so y'all probably want to put people in charge whose gonna fight for the Constitution. Only thinking. God bless you."

Or the manner a recent friendly interview on Trick New gradually descends into incoherence. Or his Baronial 2020 appearance on another right-wing platform, which devolves into a completely insane endorsement of an anti-COVID product that does not exist.

Only put: Walker does not appear able to speak, or think, beyond a fix of memorized talking points.

His conclusion to skip the Republican principal debate last week was utterly predictable. As much as Walker wants to speak his truth, his handlers want him out of public view for equally long as possible. If he can secure the Republican nomination, the theory goes, he may win his race against the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, simply owing to the hyper-partisan nature of American politics.

There was a time in our political history, not and then long agone, when threatening to impale your married woman, or having police confiscate a gun from you, or bragging about playing Russian roulette, would have disqualified a person from serving equally a public servant. In today'south GOP, this kind of violent ideation may exist closer to a badge of accolade.

Walker has been enlisted as a candidate of colour by a political party that no longer bothers to hibernate its sympathy for white supremacists.

But there's something fundamentally tragic most watching a major party enable a candidate who cannot dependably form a coherent sentence. It registers every bit withal another course of exploitation, with obvious racial overtones. White executives and owners made a fortune off Walker during his career, while his own body and heed paid the price.

Now, Walker has been enlisted as a candidate of color by a political party that no longer bothers to hide its sympathy for white supremacists. To remain viable as a Republican candidate, Walker — who grew upwards in i of the most racist counties in America — has had to stand before predominantly white rally crowds and say things such as, "Don't allow the left try to fool you with this racism matter."

He conspicuously yearns to experience like a winner again, just ask Donald Trump, the man who, years ago, helped bring about the collapse of the football league in which Walker in one case starred.

But it's the corporate donors who want Walker in the Senate most of all. Behind closed doors, there is trivial doubt among them that his record of mental instability and erratic beliefs is unworthy of higher office. They value him non for his intellect or empathy, merely because he'll vote to protect their profits — whether or non his brain can decipher the legislation he might be called to vote upon.

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Source: https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/04/14/georgia-senate-race-republican-steve-almond