By Rosetta Miller-Perry
Black voters in Georgia, along with young people and some enlightened whites, prevented a disaster from happening last week in Atlanta. The Republican Party had enlisted the services of a former football hero turned disgraced front man in Herschel Walker to run for the Senate against the imminently more qualified Rev. Raphael Warnock. The GOP knew that no white man or woman was going to beat Warnock, so they decided to pick a totally inexperienced and unqualified Black front man to serve the same purpose: get Warnock out of office and put another Donald Trump sycophant in power, very similar to the ones that sadly are running the state of Tennessee.
Fortunately, Black voters and their allies turned out in full force, enabling Warnock to defeat Walker and secure the Senate seat for a full six-year term. In the process Herschel Walker lost pretty much all the social standing and respect he’d earned from an undeniably great career as a Georgia running back and later NFL player. It was disturbingly apparent from the beginning that Walker not only knew nothing about government or politics, but was unable to deliver coherent, reasonable and intelligent statements on any issue.
His performance was so awful that once it became apparent that the Democrats would retain control over the Senate regardless of what happened, several key Republicans including the state attorney general decided they no longer had any interest in supporting Walker.
This was as cynical an attempt to isolate and blunt Black voting power as has been seen in recent years, and the fact that the GOP didn’t even try to find a worthy opponent for Warnock speaks volumes about their contempot for Black voters in Georgia specifically and Black voters nationally overall.
Sadly, Arizona turncoat Kyrsten Sinemna announced last week that she was going to switch her affiliation and become an independent. So now the Senate will be 50-40 Democratic, still a majority, but now the two-seat majority that was anticipated. Sinema masquerades as a Democrat, and evenvotes with them when it suits her, but she is also a big friend of several Republicans, most notably Kevin McCarthy, who most likely will soon be Speaker of the House.
While that disgusting event cannot be stoped, at least Black voters kept a ridiculously unfit and unqualified candidate out of office, and also prevented a mockery of Black electoral power being done.
But it won’t be the last time that the Republicans attempt to nullify or negate Black voting power. The Democrats under new leadership must take every step to prevent it and make certain that they remain vigilant whenever and whereever the Republicans attempt a similar strategy.