Nothing Works In Politics, Until You Try It -- So Try Everything

The Kitchen Sink Is A Virtue

Herschel Walker Can Still Win Because Republicans Have No Morals Or Ethics

I happen to agree with people who think the recent revelations about Herschel Walker allegedly paying for an abortion while advocating for a national abortion ban are unlikely to cause him to lose much support among Republican voters. The same thought process applies to revelations about his alleged spousal abuse and philandering.

But at the same time, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be mocked, ridiculed, harangued and criticized for doing these things.

People have learned the wrong lessons from the political successes of Donald Trump when it comes to “scandals.” Much of the thought process comes from the fact that Trump survived multiple outrages that have seemed to kill campaigns before his, because his core voters are so hell-bent on punishing women and minorities while “owning the libs” that they just don’t care.

And while it’s true that they don’t care, a lot of voters outside of the MAGA bubble did.

Because while Trump won in 2016, he attracted fewer voters in 2016 than Hillary Clinton and was trounced in 2020 by President Biden. MAGA voters laughed when Trump made fun of the disabled, but many other voters who don’t have a twisted moral compass likely reached a breaking point at that moment and turned against him. Or maybe it was when he bragged about sexual assault. Or called countries with large nonwhite populations “shit holes.” Or any one of numerous offenses that led him to be a two-time popular vote loser and a one term president.

There was no rhetorical silver bullet that singularly took down Trump, and there hasn’t been one such weapon in American politics for years, but that doesn’t mean “nothing works” and “nothing matters.”

Any and all lanes of attack with a basis in reality are worth pursuing in politics. Voters do not operate like machines, with levers that can be masterfully tweaked by politicians, consultants, and media outlets. They are a mess. Despite over 250 years of American democracy, it’s still a guess as to what actually works, and what works can change within a decade (marital infidelity used to be a campaign slayer, and then Bill Clinton disproved it in 1992, for instance).

What this means is that preemptive surrender because something is supposedly priced in is foolhardy. If a candidate has flaws, it is malpractice to leave those areas of possible weakness unexplored.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean a campaign or political party must take up all attacks. Some things are best left to partisans, because an official stamp on a lurid attack can surely backfire.

But nothing should be abandoned. The worst stuff can demoralize core supporters (remember how Trump’s election conspiracy theories convinced Georgia Republicans to stay away from the polls during the 2021 runoff) and rally supporters for the opposition, who may go from political neutrality to action just to oppose one position or another.

Voters are strange and unpredictable agents of chaos, don’t assume you can outsmart them by outthinking them. When in doubt, just pile on and often something will just give.

— Oliver

Follow me, Oliver Willis, on Twitter @owillis

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