While You Slept, the Culture War Changed

What we talk about when we talk about Herschel Walker

The story beats of the Herschel Walker situation are so familiar to anyone with even a passing familiarity with American politics that the whole thing seems a little boring. A showboat with grand ambition and little else throws his (it’s usually a “his”) hat in the ring for a Republican ticket to immediate mainstream derision. In the beginning, conservative voters sort of ignore the guy, hoping he’ll go away of his own accord. Meanwhile, he starts attracting headlines for loopy soundbites. And then, inevitably, the silver bullet: a monster scandal. The “grab her by the pussy” tape or the Roy Moore allegations. In this case, allegations that the flamingly anti-abortion Walker has paid for at least one secret abortion.

This was seen as an automatic campaign killer by a lot of people who must have started paying attention to politics around the time House of the Dragon came out. Instead of fleeing a sinking ship, Republican leadership rallied to bail water. Walker himself flatly denied the story and said he’d never heard of the woman making the claim — a defense that seems unlikely, given that he has another child with her. 

But Walker needn’t have bothered with a denial. The conservative response so far has been “so what?” Even as Walker’s own son — himself an avowed Republican — put his dad on blast for the hell he’s put the family through, the party of traditional values circled the wagons around their guy.

And this is the part of the story where things get really familiar. As Natalie Allison reported at Politico, Walker’s Christian fans were “unfazed” by the revelations. “The dilemma is, do you wait for a candidate who is perfect?” Pastor Anthony George said in an interview. “Do you wait for a candidate who perfectly aligns with everything you not only want them to do when they’re elected, but all of your cultural and moral beliefs? Or do you take what’s given to you and make the choice between the options?”

Reading the piece, you start to feel all the very obvious retorts to this bubble up in your guts. For example: 

“Nobody is asking you to wait for your perfect candidate, just maybe one who isn’t obviously awful!” 

“Whatever happened to character?”

And, maybe the most common, an incredulous: “How can Christians, who say they care about integrity, who impeached Clinton, whose own Bible teaches them that they are to be good people, be so hypocritical as to support the….” blah blah blah. 

I get the impulse. I’ve written versions of these things myself, back in 2016 during the Trump surge. It’s a fair question! But this is a case of the song having changed and not enough people paying attention to the new beat. Evangelicals are not holding themselves to this standard. They are certainly not holding their political avatars to this standard. There is no need for you to hold them to it either. Be free.