Every time I venture out on that proverbial limb labeled “political predictions,” it seems to snap under my weight … and I get highly embarrassed.
With that predicate laid out there, I am going to take another stab at political prognostication.
It is my fervent hope that Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Georgia Democrat facing a runoff next month, can return to work on Capitol Hill in January. To do so he will need to defeat Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
Why is that important for folks such as me, who doesn’t have a vote in Georgia but who has a keen interest in good government?
For starters, a Walker victory — and it hurts my fingers to type those words — doesn’t rob Democrats of control of the Senate. They still will be the “majority” party, even though the Senate would be tied at 50-50, just as it is at this moment. It is a tenuous majority to say the very least, as Democrats need Vice President Kamala Harris — who presides over the Senate — to cast tie-breaking votes.
She has done so before. Those ties make me nervous.
Were the runoff go to Sen. Warnock, then Democrats would have an actual majority at 51-49. OK, that ain’t exactly a landslide, either. But at least Democrats, if they were to hold together against the MAGA crowd that dominates the GOP caucus in Congress, wouldn’t need to call on the VP to break a tie.
There’s another reason for me imploring Georgia voters to do the right thing and re-elect Sen. Warnock. Have you listened to Herschel Walker speak? Have you heard Walker try to string sentences together to make a policy point?
There’s no nice way to say this, but Walker is an ignoramus. He has no business speaking for the people of Georgia, let alone casting votes on legislation affecting the rest of the nation that resides far from that lovely state.
Walker is the GOP nominee because he earned the endorsement of Donald Trump, who has said only this about Walker: “He was a heck of a football player and he’ll be a heck of a senator.” There you go. He played football in college and in the pros. He won lots of awards as a running back. That makes him fit for high public office? No. It doesn’t!
I want Sen. Warnock to win. I will use this blog whenever possible to extol this good man’s credentials as a reasonable, thoughtful and intelligent man of deep faith and conviction. I also intend to remind anyone who is able to read these posts that his political opponent is unfit for the office of U.S. senator.
johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
