I love my country — except for the South. For background, when my college roommate got married and moved to the South, she told me “all they seem to care about is football and race.” Of course, that was over 50 years ago, but things don’t seem to have changed much. At least the Republicans don’t think so.
Surely the Republican Party in Georgia would not have been sly enough to have nominated Herschel Walker, a speech-challenged Black football icon, just to get the southern-white-football-nut vote. Surely.
Herschel Walker is not just any former college/pro athlete/hero revealed to have fathered children out of wedlock. There’s no question that he was a superb football player who got that way by hard work and dedication. He earned his football hero reputation. And there’s no question that he has fathered several children out of wedlock.
Maybe it was OK for him to use women because he was a famous athlete. Maybe the women used him. Maybe he should support the children he has fathered. There’s no “maybe” that Herschel Walker, who ran as a Republican for the U.S. Senate and is now in a runoff, is just a colossal womanizer and a jerk.
One of the questions about Walker was whether he adequately supports three of the four children (that we know about), with one on the way, that he fathered out of wedlock. Apparently he does not. But he says he does. What a guy.
He’s not entirely to blame in his hit-and-run affairs with women. What I find interesting in reading about Walker’s actions is that he paid for, or offered to pay for abortions all around. Apparently the mothers of his children eschewed abortion and preferred to go on his lifelong child-support payroll, which turns out to be highly unreliable, according to his very vocal son (well, one of his sons).
Here it comes. Remarkably, it’s not his lack of connection or financial support for the children he fathered, but his offers to pay for abortions that has riled his critics the most, critics who condemn abortion as murder. (Their movement, Right to Life, would better be called Lifelong Unprotected Sex Tariff or LUST.)
Candidate Walker, by the way, is firmly opposed (now) to abortion.
As a woman, I’m not willing to let the women who bore his children off the hook either. This is the 21st century and birth control for both men and women is readily available. Unless you’d rather get pregnant (for financial reasons?).
Probably the saddest thing about Walker’s candidacy is that he’s being used by white Republicans who are taking advantage of him. Walker himself has said he’s “not that smart.”
I’m guessing Hollywood will wait about five years before making the movie. Although we don’t how the plot will end, my guess is that it will be sad and depressing, but Herschel Walker will probably appear, smiling, at the premiere. Maybe he’ll bring some of his kids.
On a lighter note, I can picture Trump and Walker appearing at a rally together. English teachers all over the country will weep.
