How Low Can Gutter Politics Go? Bill Kristol’s Republican Accountability Project tries to stigmatize me for my past mental illness. By Herschel Walker
Mr. Walker, a retired National Football League running back, is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia and author of “Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder.”
My former wife, Cindy, and I gave a TV interview in 2008 to share our story—not about the glory days of football but about the pain of my mental-health struggles and their effect on our marriage. It was uncomfortable to bare our souls like that. Mental illness carried more of a stigma back then. It was hard to admit you needed help and even harder to get it.
She helped me through the hardest time of my life. Because our story ultimately was one of healing, forgiveness and redemption, I knew that if we came forward, we could convince others that there is no shame in asking for help. I hoped we would help people who were struggling and maybe even save a few lives.
I think we did. That interview was part of my life’s mission to advocate for mental-health awareness and treatment. I wrote a book about my experience—every painful detail. I visited military bases around the world to deliver the message that seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder isn’t a sign of weakness but of self-awareness and strength. I met with youth groups and mental-health organizations. I continue to do everything I can to end the stigma. I always say I would much rather listen to a friend talk about his struggles than go to his funeral.
Now I’m running for office, and my struggle has become the subject of a dishonest attack ad. Produced by a group that calls itself the Republican Accountability Project and supports my Democratic opponent, the ad uses clips of the 2008 interview in which my former wife describes things I did when we were married and my mental health was at its worst.
The ad is titled “The Real Herschel Walker,” but its producers are the ones hiding something: that I took accountability for my actions and got treatment, that she gave this interview because I asked her to, and that we did this and other interviews together. The ad makers took something designed to do good and turned it into something evil, which will harm innocent people.
The chairman of the project is Bill Kristol, a man who knows better. In a 2013 interview after a mass shooting at Washington’s Navy Yard, Mr. Kristol acknowledged that it’s dangerous to stigmatize people for mental illness: “Everyone is now saying because this guy was clearly disturbed that we have to report everyone who ever goes into a mental-health hospital or seeks mental-health treatment,” he said. “I’m not so sure that’s a great idea. You would discourage people. People have episodes, or they get depressed, they get treatment. I don’t know, 20 years from now, do you want that to be in a database? I don’t have a view on this. I’m just saying these things, as a matter of actual public policy as opposed to reacting to a terrible tragedy, are much more complicated.”
With gasoline prices, inflation, taxes and crime at the forefront of voters’ minds, it’s easy to see why my opponents are desperate enough to crawl into the gutter. The silver lining of this disgusting attack is that it gives me another opportunity to highlight the importance of mental-health awareness and treatment. If you’re suffering, know that your life has value. You aren’t alone. And I will never stop fighting for you.
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