Celebrate, my friends, the Democratic Party will effectively retain control of the US Senate and the cynical GOP choice of a supremely unfit candidate will no longer matter and will likely lose anyway.
Herschel Walker was fired well before the finale episode when I worked with him on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ and he will likely meet the same fate in his run-off election in Georgia on December 6th.
His fate is almost certainly guaranteed as even the GOP will likely abandon his campaign in the coming days and Trump will be far less likely to back such a losing candidate with any further in-person appearances as he abhors the ‘loser’ tag which has stuck to him in the last few days like the smells coming off of his golf cart on the back nine in August.
The spectacle of Herschel Walker’s minders, like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, not allowing him a moment of national airtime without their watchful eyes and ability to pounce on any unintelligible utterance to protect the cause of MAGA and ultimately white supremacist was almost more than I could be bear to watch.
It had an East Berlin sort of feel to it that was especially ironic and creepy. It looked like something we would see in a dictatorship where ‘Big Brother’ was always watching.
Sadly these same men will not return his phone calls the moment he is officially no longer useful to the GOP and leaving an obviously damaged and troubled man to fend for himself among pressures and realities that are now exacerbated and under a microscope in his life since they chose him as a candidate.
Herschel Walker’s troubles are his own doing, yes, but allowing him a platform to publicize his character defects is especially gross.
Watch for example, how quickly Fox will turn on him, using his blackness on both sides of the equation.
They will be the first to attach his foibles and flaws to his race the moment that becomes the most valuable asset to them and their white nationalist narrative.
The fact that his candidacy received basically only white votes in Georgia says a lot about the character of those constituents as well. Especially faced with such an excellent and qualified candidate as the incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, who will no doubt win his seat again.
My hunch is it will not even be that close this time around. And for good reason as this week’s midterm elections were a clear repudiation of the extremism and division and downright destructive dogma and rhetoric of the Republican Party.
As I have written before, I think the GOP not only misunderstood but took for granted the blow back they would receive from voters from the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision.
For example,the snarky way Justice Alito and Justice Gorsuch, not to mention how Clarence and Ginni Thomas gloated in that decision and the power they were wielding over the lives of American women was especially abhorrent.
The apex of that awful moment was Samuel Alito’s stand up routine in Rome when he seemed to luxuriate in his power like a narcissistic modern day version of Matthew Hale.
Justice Samuel Alito has smug air of a man proclaiming to know what is best for women and their bodies and giving off the same incel vibes as his fellow Princetonian, Ted Cruz, a man as universally reviled as any politician of the modern era.
So voters proclaimed ‘no thanks’ and they said it in numbers too big to deny. A far cry from the paid-for predictions of the GOP pollsters and the well-fed pundits looking for the click bait of a conservative ‘bloodbath’ were left with a quiet and assured defeat.
The values of vanity and vindictiveness and a Capitol Hill full of chaos agents that did their best to hector and bully any legislative progress in service of the grifting godhead they all had come to worship.
I wouldn’t be half surprised to see interparty overtures in the coming weeks to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
The GOP missed the boat in a big way and they know it. The first rats to flee the ship, like Senator Josh Hawley, are already declaring the Republican party dead and are looking to rebuild it anew from the ashes.
Josh Hawley of course was one of the chief 2020 election denial supporters and cheered on the angry mob of racist Trump supporters the day they attacked the US Capitol looking to hang the Vice President on orders from their corrupt overload, Donald Trump.
Josh was also the first one hightailing it out of the door to keep his own weak ass safe. A profile in cowardice that will serve as a parable in the coming age.
Most of the conservative politicians of the Trump era will become punchlines and cautionary tales for decades to come.
Much like how Joe McCarthy’s name stands, almost universally, as a sign for how bad things can become when petty men use fear to hold on to power and punish their perceived enemies and fellow Americans so too will the modern GOP and the men and women who stood by Donald Trump thru the ‘Big Lie’ and its attempt at insurrection.
Through all this President Biden led with a steely resolve and affable charm, letting the numbers and statistics speak for themselves and allowing others, who he candidly admits may be slicker at speaking and rallies, hello former President Obama, but who were more than happy to spread the gospel of his administrations accomplishments and the hard work that still lies ahead.
I find Joe Biden’s leadership style human, candid and refreshing.
He seems to be a man more concerned with substance than braying about his greatness or hectoring his opponents.
That is a welcome attribute and huge asset considering what we have all been thru as a nation and my hunch is as time marches on it will been seen more and more as the exact right tone for the moment.
Sometimes fate delivers the right music at the right time. Joe Biden’s song is resonating with voters and more will soon join the chorus.
Almost everyone can now see thru the weak sauce that Trump and MAGA politicians have become and are choosing the solid nutritious meal of honest farm to table goodness over the sugar high and salt and fat and fried fast food diet of Trumpism.
Biden’s Administration feels like a home-cooked Sunday dinner after six weeks on the road eating at strip mall chain restaurants, it makes you feel good instead of guilty.
Ultimately that is what voters have begun to shift to, this election wasn’t just political, it was cultural.
It feels good to do good. After so many years of darkness and rancor Americans are looking to reconnect with the values and kindness that used to define us as a people.
At least in our higher aspirations and idealized versions of ourselves.
We are heading into the holiday season, time for ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ perhaps the most American of all movies as Jimmy Stewart’s character, George Bailey seems to exemplify the everyman concerned with making sure his fellow citizens get a fair shake in life and against insurmountable odds at times.
That is who most of us want and strive to be as citizens, not a callous, reactionary crowd that would rather give tax breaks to billionaires than a hot lunch to school children who cannot afford it.
Suffering was seen as by product of capitalism and something to be mocked during Trump’ years, empathy was not a virtue but a character defect to his toadies and the troglodytes that cheered him.
Who can forget, my former NYC neighbor (spoiler alert, he’s a jerk), Larry Kudlow cheering on the ‘robust economy’ as Americans were lining up in their cars for miles to visit food banks in the early days of the pandemic.
The heartlessness and avarice of the previous era will not be something that disappears overnight nor will the fires of hate that birthed them turn cold right away.
The embers will burn for quite sometime but the good news is we have turned the corner.
Last night was the end of the road in many ways and it’s basically all over but the shouting now for Trump and the GOP.
The rest of us can sing, and celebrate, we earned it.
Then we can get back to working on making this country a fair, safe and more equitable and empathetic place for all. Democracy Wins.
You're a retard that doesn't know anything about politics, let alone being a writer or comedian lmao
A truly uplifting essay Noel. Thank You!!