The Perfect Candidate for a Fallen Party

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/hershel-walker-perfectly-embodies-gop/671758/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/lAI5R

There have been plenty of awful candidates in American political history; what sets Herschel Walker apart is that he’s a wreck in so many different ways.

Walker, the Republican Senate nominee in Georgia trying to unseat Democrat Raphael Warnock, is a compulsive liar, so much so that he falsely claimed he has not made false claims about graduating from the University of Georgia. Walker’s speech is often unintelligible. His argument for why efforts to address climate change are pointless goes this way: “Since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then now we got to clean that back up, while they’re messing ours up.”

Walker is an absentee father who has been critical of absentee fathers. His campaign has acknowledged that he has three children by women to whom he was not married, in addition to his son Christian by his former wife, Cindy Grossman, who has alleged that Walker threatened to kill her.

“His eyes would become very evil,” she said in an interview in 2008. “I got into a few choking things with him. The first time he held the gun to my head, he held the gun to my temple and said he was gonna blow my brains out.” Walker hasn’t denied the allegations; instead he implied it was the result of his struggle with mental illness. (Grossman filed for divorce in 2001, citing “physically abusive and extremely threatening behavior” and secured a protective order against Walker four years later.)

The most recent revelation to roil his campaign is that Walker, who has said he supports abortion bans with no exceptions, allegedly paid for an abortion in 2009 and urged the woman to terminate a second pregnancy in 2011, which she refused to do.

*snip*

[vlyons]

1. Even before football, his IQ was marginal at best

IQ probably was about 65, and that was before any football head injuries. Clearly, he has struggled with self-esteem, frustrated with being understood, respect as a man, etc. Shame on those, who wanted to use him as a political puppet. But that is today's GOP, shameless and without honor.

[Upthevibe]

5. vlyons..............

I'm curious about his IQ being 65 even before the head injuries.

I was a fan of his football performance because I was a fan of the team (I think it was the Cowboys) in which he played.

I'm just wondering where or how you heard this.

I'm not at all trying to be snarky. I'm just curious...

Thank you

[usaf-vet]

8. Do we think Walker would have graduated with a degree from Georgia IF he didn't play football?

My guess is absolutely not. He was a financial asset to the school... he sold football tickets and filled the stadium.

Football and other sports have always overruled academic performance.

As a school board member, we fought more than one battle to lower our academic standards SO the school could field a winning team.

It started in high schools, but over a four-year period, it also got pushed down to the middle school.

Comments from parents were clear if their student got playing time in middle school, they would make the high school team.

If they did well there, then maybe a four-year college scholarship.

Then pro ball.

[Nevilledog]

12. He didn't get a degree as he never graduated.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/fact-check-walker-university-of-georgia-graduated

[vlyons]

11. I go by his behavior, his speech, and his reasoning.

IQ of 100 is "normal"
Between 110 and 119 Superior intelligence or above average
Between 120 and 140 Superintelligence or being gifted
Scores over 140 Indicates genius or nearly genius
Scores between 80 and 89 Indicates dullness or “lower average”
Scores under 70 Definite “feeble-mindedness” or low

He seems feeble-minded to me. There are a lot of feeble-minded people out there, who are lovely people, earning a living at a job that suits them. Then there is Walker, whose reasoning is often childish, doesn't make even slightly reasonable sense. Plus he has a history of violent impulses, when he is confronted and/or frustrated. Clearly he is mentally challenged.

[Maraya1969]

15. I remember hearing that Sarah Palin's IQ was 80. I was kind of shocked at that one.

[Old Crank]

6. Here is one chart for IQ level

Herschel is probably not at the 65 level.



https://paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/iq_ranges.html

[AllyCat]

16. This looks dated and offensive.

Calling people “retarded” is offensive and hurtful. Phone book? Video recorder?

[Old Crank]

17. Saying some one has a 65 IQ

Without testing is pretty offensive.

[AllyCat]

18. True.

[DinahMoeHum]

2. Walker puts the blackface on white supremacy.

[Celerity]

19. +10000000000000000

[Mr. Steve]

3. GOP contempt

I am aghast at the abysmal level of contempt the GOP junta must have for the people. To select a moron like Walker is a demonstration of nothing more than hatred and a complete refusal to accept the humanity of the citizenry.

[Lonestarblue]

4. Walker was selected mostly for his name recognition.

People like Trump think fame is all that matters. And Walker’s backers know he will vote as he’s told to vote—no original thinking needed. But Republicans don’t want thinkers or statesmen (states people?) or anyone who is intelligent enough or has enough integrity to question the dirty politics at play. He’s being used but probably enjoying his moment in the limelight again. If he loses, Trump and Republicans will quickly pretend they never supported him in the first place.

[kellytore]

7. Jan Kemp was fired from the University of Georgia because she refused to give passing grades

to several football players including Walker. She later sued the University and was awarded 2 million dollars which was later reduced to 1 million. She exposed how the professors were pressured into passing these players so they could be on the team to help the Bulldogs become the national champions in 1981. I hope this is still not happening today. People like Walker took the place in college of someone who deserved to be there. The only reason he was accepted to college was for his athletic ability.

[mountain grammy]

9. I'm starting to feel sympathy for Herschel

His brain damage is real and obvious and he admits to struggles with mental illness. When he loses republicans will abandon him like last week's garbage.

It's scary how low republicans will go. We're seeing they're capable of anything.

[dalton99a]

10. Scary thing is The Fallen Party will retake Congress if Democrats don't turn out on November 8

along with enough Independents

[crickets]

13. K&R for visibility.

[Wednesdays]

14. The article is jarring

considering it was written by a conservative Republican!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wehner