The man who shined as an athlete – a football player – during the 1980s, is now running for Senator of the State of Georgia at the national level. He is running against the incumbent, Raphael Warnock, a pastor at the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King used to preach.
They are alike in that both are African Americans.
But they are very different in their political substance.
Blacks are a third of the state’s population, so it will be up to the White vote to make the choice. It is a very important choice for Georgians to make.
Walker has not been active in politics during his life. Warnock is all about politics and helping push for African Americans to step out and assert themselves in the national scene.
Walker did not come up with the idea of becoming a Senator himself. It was Trump who did. Trump who persuaded him to – all of a sudden – become political and cast a vote in crucial matters for our nation.
The problem is that it won’t be Walker making the choices, but Trump.
If Herschel Walker had distinguished himself in another field, after his stellar run as a football player, then he might be a viable candidate. But he has not.
Why Georgians would even consider him as a candidate is not a good sign. The good news is that it is only some Georgians who are thinking that way.
From what I hear, Walker is buying completely into Trump’s message.
Walker could argue, ‘wait, look at the current senate, look at all those educated white men with long political careers who cast their votes based on what instructions they get from Mar-A-Lago, so what’s wrong with taking instructions?’
What’s wrong is that they are puppets.
Herschel Walker needs to ask himself if he wants to join in with that or be his own man.
The glory days of the 1980s, carrying the football down the field to the goal line, will forever be present in the minds of Americans. Thank you for that. But politics is a whole different game.
In an article that appeared in the NY Times on 10/2/22, Walker was quoted as saying to a mostly white audience in his hometown of Wrightsville this last August, ‘don’t let anyone tell you that you’re racist.’ But how do you know that?
The Ku Klux Klan had a long history in Georgia. The nation’s collective efforts to stamp them out has taken years and the lives of many.
To run for a senate seat in Washington DC from a state with such history demands a thorough knowledge of the battles your state has fought. You do not have that knowledge and have shown no inclination to acquire it.
It is only now, that Trump has urged you to run, that you have felt the enthusiasm for the job.
You might see it as one more chance to make a run with the football all the way to the goal line.
But that is not what politics is.
A critical part of becoming well integrated human beings is to know who we are, to know our limits. Your agreeing to be thrust into this race by Donald Trump does not speak well for you.
He wants to use you for his ends.
I don’t think you would win anyway, but should you do so, you would be taking over for Mr Warnock, a man with a long history of committing to empowering African Americans. And you would be doing your brothers and sisters a profound disservice.
Football was your field of endeavor. You worked hard and you shined. Politics is a whole different thing. Like in anything else, you have to work hard to stand out. Raphael Warnock has done that. You have not.
Please do not be a puppet to Donald Trump.
Do not do that to yourself.
Oscarvaldes.medium.com
Oscar Valdes 