(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

As a Democrat, I could ridicule today’s Republicans easily for their contemptible actions, their bizarre comments, their complicity in undermining American democracy. But I leave that to, wait for it, other Republicans.

Even with my fertile writer’s imagination, I cannot come close to matching the creativity of Republicans. Theirs is a perverse creativity mind you, but bless their hearts, they do try.

Let’s take, for example, Newt Gingrich’s recent defence of Herschel Walker, the Republican Senatorial candidate from Georgia. Newt, who probably should have turned in his morality police badge when he left his dying wife for an affair with future-wife number two in 1980, or before having another affair with future-wife number three in 1998, but he was busy impeaching Bill Clinton for an affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Seriously, it’s hard to keep up with Republican hypocrisy…they do it so well. Anyway, after news that Walker - a stout anti-abortion-no-matter-what supporter - was found to have paid for the abortion of a girlfriend 13 years ago, Gingrich came to the rescue on the Republican Propaganda Network…Fox News.

Gingrich praised Walker as “the most important Senate candidate in the country" because of his “deep commitment to Christ.” Really? Newt, you do know Walker’s running against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who also serves full time as a senior pastor at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church…the church of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr?

Nonetheless, Gingrich described Walker as a "remarkable person" and summed up the man’s slip from Godliness by saying: “He's been through a long, tough period. He had a lot of concussions coming out of football, he suffered PTSD.”

Look, it’s none of my business - or to me anyone else’s - whether his former girlfriend, who later gave birth to one of Walker’s children, had an abortion. Further, I don’t care whether Walker paid for the abortion either…and he did.

I do care that he lied about this…and scores of other events in his life…like working for years for the F.B.I…like graduating from the University of Georgia…like donating to charities and like running six hospitals. Yet - and this should shock no one - Republicans defend his endless lying endlessly…by simply attacking those who bring forth facts.

Republicans first claimed Walker was young and simply made mistakes…he’s 60 now…47 when he wrote the $700 check for the abortion...along with sending a “get well” card to the woman. Nice touch. The woman said he later asked her to get another abortion when he impregnated her…but she said, “No” and left him.

Republicans have proven time and again they actually care about only one thing, winning elections. They don’t even govern when they are elected. And yet, otherwise intelligent people metaphorically sell their souls to the devil…and vote for fools like Walker…this not-so-smart man who never did much of anything of consequence to improve the lives of others his entire life. He ran with a football…nothing more.

It seems difficult for my Canadian friends to understand…well, let’s call them the “complexities” of Republican candidates and their voters in the States…because their otherwise batshit crazy behaviour might seem…well, unseemly.

Lest we forget, social conservatives - the two-word alias for Republicans - embraced Donald J. Trump despite his wishy-washy political history…a man who was once fully supportive of abortion rights…then not. Trump, religious? Less so than my dog…who does seem to pray for treats.

However, Trump rewarded the “movement” - those millions of Religious Right voters he conned - by appointing three conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court…justices who finally delivered the decision to overturn a half-century of federal abortion rights.

In less than two weeks, no less than the control of the U.S. Senate - now divided 50-50 between the two parties - is at stake. Senator Warnock, the Democratic incumbent who won the seat in a runoff election in January 2021, is seeking a full six-year term and while he should win easily…he is instead one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation.

In all but the bizarro world of Republicans - who own so-called religious conservatives and evangelicals - Walker would garner no more than one-third of all the votes. But in the land where people who believe strongly in “family values” support a man who his own son - Christian Walker - described thusly, who knows?

“Family values, people? He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them,” his son said. “He was out having sex with other women.”

“Excuse me,” hundreds of thousands of good Georgia Christians seem to say, “As I look the other way.”

Most folks with a brain, heart and soul - Americans and Canadians - can’t separate conscience from facts the way most Republicans do. Consider Marci McCarthy, the Republican chair of DeKalb County in the metro Atlanta area, who explained simply enough: Georgia Republicans “are not voting for fathers and husbands of the year.”

True enough…and, I guess Adolph Hitler wasn’t a bad guy…once you got to know him.

So, here you have it…Sen. Mitch McConnell backs Walker, calling him “completely electable,” despite his life of controversies and lies. He’s Trump’s man, too. The GOP has even dumped more than $35 million in television ads supporting Walker last month alone.

On Nov. 9, the ballot count will confirm exactly how many God-fearing Georgians voted for Walker over a man who has walked with God his entire life…the Reverend Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Oh, and if Sen. Warnock gets more votes…well, Republicans go to Plan B…"the election was stolen." Because, you see, when you live your life as a Republican…anything becomes believable.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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