This morning, I woke up with a headache and the news that Republican Herschel Walker has lost the runoff election in Georgia. That means that Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock will remain as a Senator in Georgia.

My sense of relief about this result has little to do with actual politics. Politically speaking, I’d call myself pretty much “purple”. Before the MAGA movement, I didn’t really think there was a huge difference between Democrats and Republicans. I was inclined to vote for candidates in either major political party or, quite often, I would cast a vote for a third party candidate. Most of the time, I was voting for people over parties. However, ever since Trump invaded the political arena, the Republican Party has put forth terrible candidates who are extremely flawed and inappropriate for holding public office. For so many reasons, Herschel Walker was an egregiously bad candidate for Senate. What’s terribly sad, though, is that even though Walker was a terrible candidate, the race was still very close. It’s obvious that a lot of people in Georgia vote for parties over people, and some are stubbornly resisting seeing that some candidates for the Republican Party are just plain bad choices.

Herschel Walker never should have been allowed to run for Senate. He is eminently unqualified, can barely string a coherent sentence together, and doesn’t even live in Georgia, although he was born and raised there, and went to the University of Georgia. Walker resides in a mansion in Texas. Walker is best known for his prowess on the football field as a running back, not as a statesman or a scholar. Although he had once claimed to be the valedictorian of his high school class and graduated at the top of his class at the University of Georgia, fact checkers have determined that both of these claims are untrue. In fact, Walker never even graduated from college. He dropped out of school so he could play professional football, which was probably the right career decision for him, since he was very successful on the football field. However, his athletic ability doesn’t necessarily translate as an important skill in the political arena.

Like Donald Trump, Walker is not known for his strong sense of family values, which the Republicans supposedly push with their allegiances to Protestant and Evangelical Christians. He’s had multiple children with different women. Also like Donald Trump, Walker has been accused of domestic violence. In spite of being “opposed” to abortion and any exceptions to abortion bans, Walker has been accused of pressuring at least two women to have abortions. One of the women even produced a check for $575 and a get well card, allegedly from Walker. Mr. Walker has also spoken publicly about his diagnosis with dissociative identity disorder, and has served as a spokesperson for a mental health program for veterans. While I would never want to automatically count out someone from political service, solely because they have a mental health issue, I do think that some diagnoses are incompatible with political service. Dissociative identity disorder is a very serious diagnosis.

It seems to me that only a few years ago, people who ran for public offices, particularly on the federal level, met some minimum standards and levels of decorum. Donald Trump has introduced a new era, which includes people who are wildly inappropriate as leadership candidates. As these folks get elected to office, we find out that they’re completely and embarrassingly unprepared to do their jobs. So, instead of solving problems that affect the citizenry of the United States or even more locally within their states, they pursue issues that are irrelevant. And now, Donald Trump has openly stated that he thinks it’s time to “suspend” the United States Constitution! Why? Because the Constitution is an obstacle in his way. The man wants to be back in power, and he wants to stay there for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, he champions stooges whom he hopes will do his bidding, rather than work for the people who elected them. I think Herschel Walker is an obvious example of that type of candidate.

I have a number of relatives who live in Georgia. I’m sad to say that the probably all voted for Walker over Warnock, simply because they are dyed in the wool Republicans who are convinced that Democrats are evil “communists”. And so, instead of choosing the obviously more qualified candidate– one who isn’t a Trump croney– they will simply vote for the “R” or abstain. They’re good people, and I love them, but this inability to vote for the best interests of everyone makes me feel very sad.

I really hope that the recent election results will convince both of the major parties that it’s time to stop championing people who are suitable candidates for public office. We have a lot of problems that need to be solved, and they will never be fixed if we keep getting seriously flawed candidates like Herschel Walker taking up precious space on the ballots. Enough is enough. We’ve got lots of important shit to do, and we need people in public office who can and will do the work.

In other news…

I was right about younger daughter’s birthday yesterday. She was delighted to receive my gift to her, and sent me a very thoughtful thank you note. It’s so nice that we’re enjoying this turn of events. I just wish this could have happened sooner, but I suppose this was the way things were supposed to evolve. In any case, I’m very appreciative. It’s always a good thing when a narcissist loses. And, as we can see, it looks like Trump, the biggest narcissist of all, is finally losing, too.