Todd Akin and the War on Women

by: Eric B.

Tue Aug 21, 2012 at 10:18:50 AM EDT

First of all, I've seen a few words here and there the last couple of days that Todd Akin of Missouri has killed his own shot at winning the senatorial race there. Republicans have started to denounce and distance themselves. Scott Brown, of Massachusetts and running against a woman, called for Akin to drop out; as did our own perpetual candidate for governor, attorney general Bill Schuette (social media spot). Having spent a little time crawling over Piedmont country, however, it's my sad duty to tell you that in the state's interior a man can choose from churches ranging from Appalachian snake handling Pentecostalists to Great Plains "Fire-and/or-brimstone Obama's pogrom against the Christians will kick off the End Times" Baptists and everything in between. As of my last visit there, "Bitch had it coming" was still an acceptable answer to, "Why, sir, did you hit your wife." So, while it might be election poison in the better corners of the state, it's also worth remembering that the southeastern corner of it gave us both Rush Limbaugh and one of the stupidest people I've ever known, and that these were two different people. (On the other hand, it was just north of Branson that I was once serenaded to sleep by the song of the coyote only to wake in the morning to find that they'd crept close enough to my camp to swipe the turkey leg bones from dinner the night before).

Well, of course he meant it, dear Wattrick. These people always mean it,  until their audience becomes something other than a very safe, very insular group of people among whom they feel they can speak freely and openly. That's the whole point of public relations, to prevent the public at large from knowing what thoughts actually rattle around in your head. Elected officials these days come with an army of handlers and political advisers to shield the public from hearing what they actually think, since elected officials are often not-terribly-bright and made it as far as they have through the power of glad handing. They're good at sales and getting others to give them money, stuff for which the ability to think is a hindrance.

But, let's not pretend that Todd Akin just popped up out of nowhere. You don't become a party's Senate candidate without people knowing who you are and what you believe. That is, your handlers and advisers can shield the public from knowing who you are, but not the people you work with, and those are the folks who help you get the nomination. If the people in Missouri's Republican Party didn't know about his bizarre beliefs about abortion, they knew that he has a backward's view on relations between the genders. They nominated him, anyway, and their horror is chiefly because the buffers broke down. I mean, does anyone think it mere coincidence that this guy hails from the state that in 2010 passed laws that helped inspire this year's anti-woman legislation here in Michigan?

This stuff doesn't exist in a vacuum. It is not new or even novel for some anti-abortion zealot to say something crazy and entirely at odds with medical science (in fact, the idea that a rape victim's reproductive system can identify forcible penetration and shut itself down offends the very working principles of sexual reproduction), and it's not new for a like-minded politician -- almost universally these people are Republicans -- to say something batshit crazy. That it usually doesn't involve a Senate candidate is a testament not to the fact that only sane people get nominated for Senate seats, but the skill at the people employed to buffer the public from what they are really thinking.

And, yes, let's acknowledge that this is simply another working piece in one party's continuous effort to turn back the clock 50 years on gender relations. Republican politicians, even if they really do think that it's repellent to say that there is rape and legitimate rape, still need the votes of people who think that's wonderful and refreshing truth. So, they pander to them, from the primary right through their time in office.  Todd Akin is a product of Missouri; he's also a product of a political system where an entire political party is held hostage to the political litmus test of a group calling itself Right to Life.