by: Virginia Kruta
We’ve talked about this before: Republicans, much like St. Louis professional sports teams, are extraordinarily gifted in the art of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Whether it’s because we peak too soon, deliver our October surprises in September, or simply fail to follow through and let the momentum carry through to Election Day, the result is the same: the thing we should — or at least are expected to — win slips from our grasp in the final moments.
So here we are, in the final moments. And the obvious action required of us now? Vote. Get your friends to vote. Remind your neighbors — and maybe ask them if they need a ride to your polling place. Make sure that the momentum we feel, the momentum we see in polls, and the fear we see in the eyes of anchors across MSNBC, CNN, and all the alphabet-soup networks — make sure that carries us across the finish line.
But there is one more important thing to remember going into this last week: The Democrats will bring their October surprises too. Their greatest wish is that you will not vote, and their surprises are designed to make you lose faith or lose enthusiasm for candidates who have made it this far.
A great example of this is Herschel Walker in Georgia: he was recently accused of paying for an abortion for a woman he was living with at the time. He denies the claim, of course, but still a number of Republicans and conservative pundits have attacked him anyway, assuming the accusation is true and claiming that it disqualifies Walker from holding elected office.
But consider: if the accusation turns out not to be true (and we may never know) they will have written him off for nothing. And even if it is true, consider the alternative: incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock. Warnock, a pro-abortion Reverend, would use taxpayer money to fund thousands of abortions. Is punishing Walker for allegedly funding one abortion — with his own money — worth taking on a senator who will use your money to pay for more?
That’s not to say ignore what is said in the final days of the election, but consider two things: the source, and the desired impact. Who is telling you about this awful thing that your Republican candidates said or did? What do they stand to gain if you believe it? And remember that no candidate is perfect. Don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good” — or even, in some cases, “the lesser of two evils.”