Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s effort to lower expectations ahead of his debate by stating he is “not that smart” is triggering some leftist commentators.
Elie Mystal, a justice correspondent at The Nation and regular guest on MSNBC, went off on a truly bizarre rant about Walker’s comments.
During an interview with SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah, Mystal reacted to the Georgia Republican stating that he expects Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) to “show up and embarrass me at the debate.”
“Okay. So that’s Herschel Walker talking about the debate with Senator Warnock. He actually gave us the date October 14th. He like pimped the date there to make it exciting for people,” Obeidallah said.
He asked, “So what’s the game here in our last two minutes? Herschel Walker really lowering the bar, guy who won the Heisman who got Pro Bowl in the NFL. You got to learn a lot of plays to do that. You got to know a lot. It’s not a game.”
His question led Mystal to go on what can only be described as an unhinged and utterly bizarre rant.
“’I’m just a poor country senatorial candidate who isn’t that smart and doesn’t know a lot about a lot of things. But what I do know is that I should be your senator so I can represent you in Congress, even though I don’t know stuff like a nice suit would know because apparently, suits have brains now. I don’t know a lot of stuff,'” Mystal said, imitating Walker.
He continued as he raised his voice, “But I know that I should be your senator so I can vote exactly like Mitch McConnell tells me to vote. Because I’ve just told you I am too stupid to figure it out for myself!”
Watch the spectacle below:
Here's @ElieNYC on my @SXMProgress show explaining the real message Herschel Walker is sending to white GOP voters by saying "I'm not that smart." pic.twitter.com/fCaL4EPmAW
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) September 21, 2022
Mystal suggested the first goal of Walker’s comment is to lower expectations to improve the odds that he will be seen as beating expectations in the debate.
And the second part is where things got weird.
“But the other thing is to remind these white MAGA, bigoted Southerners that, ‘Don’t worry, they’re not electing a black man that’s going to be able to think for himself, that he is too stupid to do anything but vote in the way he is told to vote by his white superiors,'” Mystal said, adding, “Two things with one dumb-ass press conference.
Let us just take a moment to reflect on the fact that if this unhinged rant escaped from Obeidallah’s mouth about a Democrat, he would be branded a racist and canceled.
His comment completely rules out the concept of sarcasm or that Walker has any agency of his own. To imply someone who is Republican and not white is stupid and lacks agency is just wrong and offensive. And implies only people of a certain color can support certain policies — which is kind of racist.
Walker’s comments were interesting — to put it mildly — and probably not the best. However, they were also clearly a way to lower expectations ahead of the debate.
But when you make everything about race, then everything has some secret mischievous racial undertone. And you ignore the possibility that Walker is advancing policy proposals not just because he wants to win an election, but because he actually believes in them. It also rules out the possibility that Georgia voters like Walker could care less if he was white or Black.
And hey, when you think all Republicans are racist, extremists determined to usher in a world that looks like “The Handmaid’s Tale,” what does reality matter to you?
