It is tempting to label the man who is running to be the next senator from Georgia as an extremist. But despite a past that might yet haunt him in his race against Republican Kelly Loeffler in a special election on January 5, Rev. Raphael Warnock is actually representative of the current mainstream - and likely future - of the Democratic party.
Rev. Raphael Warnock
The political and chattering class is gazing upon the rapidly changing peach state with rapt attention – and for good reason. Warnock is one of two Georgia senate candidates who must prevail for Democrats to reach 50 seats and achieve virtual majority status in the Senate. The GOP needs just one win to maintain control of the upper chamber. But if they fail to do so, Democrats will achieve the holy trinity - control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives - albeit by the narrowest of margins: a tie in the Senate which can be broken with the vote of Kamala Harris, a bare majority in the House, and a president whose election is, and will remain, a source of bitter dispute.
Rev. Warnock might best be described as part of the Al Sharpton wing of the left. If you believe America was built upon a foundation of white supremacy and for the very purpose of perpetuating the practice of slavery, for which the country has never sufficiently repented, then the reverend is your man.
Consider that this man of the cloth stated in a 2017 sermon following the election of Donald Trump that America must - these are his actual words - "repent for its worship of whiteness." He went further:
"We have constructed towers of domination that lift up a few, structures of evil that God never intended in the first place. When the quality of your education and access to basic health care is a function of your zip code, the whole city suffers. And the tower tumbles … If it is true that a man who has dominated the news and poisoned the discussion for months needs to repent, then it is doubly true that a nation that can produce such a man and make his vitriol go viral needs to repent."
Perhaps the fact that Rev. Warnock is Senior Pastor at the old haunts of Rev. Martin Luther King, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, will provide decent ground cover for this race-baiting senate hopeful among the members of the media wing of the Democratic party. But just as progressives are vowing revenge on Trumpists when the 45th president departs, so should conservatives not forget these remarks, made while all pretense was briefly put aside, and which thus define the character of this man every bit as much as "God damn America" defines Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Warnock's race-tinged beliefs also lead him to vocally support ending cash bail, which prevents criminal suspects from avoiding prosecution: "Slavery is as old as this country, and it is as wrong as it is old ... We ought to end money bail. We ought to end wealth-based detention."
Stacey Abrams
It now turns out that Warnock is tied to a voter registration group in Georgia - The New Georgia Project, founded by former Peach State gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams - that is now under investigation for allegedly shipping ballots to residents in other states. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger claims the group "sent voter registration applications to New York City."
After all we witnessed on November 3, the days which followed, and the campaign which preceded it, perhaps we should not be surprised at the racialism and allegations of fraud and corruption surrounding this senate hopeful. In ordinary times, he would likely be dismissed as a fringe candidate with little chance of winning. The Democrats' other senate nominee - and Beto O'Rourke clone - Jon Ossoff, would also be considered a long shot.
But this is 2020, and Ms. Abrams has publicly promised an avalanche of the infamous mail-in ballots which made all the difference in Joe Biden's reported win in the presidential race. So the candidacies of Rev. Warnock and Mr. Ossoff - and more importantly, what they represent for the future of the nation - must be taken seriously. Very seriously.
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