HERSCHEL WALKER IS WAVING THE FAKE POLICE BADGE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY, AS I PREDICTED

I made a prediction on Twitter a week ago:

I hope we all realize that Herschel Walker is going to lean into the police badge moment. He'll appear with cops repeatedly, and wave his badge at every appearance. His goal will be to make voters think Raphael Warnock personally spray-paints "Fuck the Police" at Antifa rallies.

— Steve M. (@nomoremister) October 15, 2022

I was right:

... Walker has turned the “fake badge” into a regular feature on the campaign trail, signifying his solidarity with law enforcement ... as NBC News reported:

Walker, a Republican, is now showing the badge, one of at least two he has from Georgia sheriffs, in TV interviews. He plans to tout it in a video cut for social media with Johnson County Sheriff Greg Rowland, who gave him the badge. And Walker’s campaign told NBC News that it has ordered 1,000 imitation plastic law enforcement badges that say “I’m with Herschel” as a fundraising tool....

At the moment, this is the centerpiece of Walker’s campaign.

What a morning in Macon with @ScottforFlorida, @GOPChairwoman, @SteveDaines, @RogerMarshallMD and a couple hundred voters! Sheriffs from across Georgia joined to show their support. While my opponent calls the police thugs and fights to defund them, I’ll always have their backs. pic.twitter.com/OuTqSyotAa

— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) October 20, 2022

Cops love Republicans, of course, and -- January 6 excepted -- Republican voters love cops. But, more important, Republican voters love phonies.

Republican voters loved the way Ronald Reagan incessantly returned the salutes of military personnel, even though, as commander in chief of the armed forces, he was superior to those troops and wasn't supposed to salute back. Reagan's primary military experience was as part of the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California, during World War II; he spent the entire war stateside. He became president by defeating Jimmy Carter, who'd attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served on nuclear submarines in the early days of the Cold War. Yet Reagan's fans saw him as the real military man.

George W. Bush avoided service in Vietnam after strings were pulled to get him into the Texas Air National Guard. In 2003, he wore a flight suit while landing a military jet to celebrate what he wanted us to believe was the end of the Iraq War. Right-wing voters (and even some liberal journalists) swooned. A year later, allies of Bush distributed purple Band-Aids at the Republican convention to mock the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, who'd won three Purple Hearts in Vietnam.

That's the pattern: You're a tough guy -- a cop, a soldier -- if you're a Republican and claim the status. No Democrats need apply, even if they've actually done the job. Those are the rules, according to the right.