This is Not About Todd Akin

Every political party has someone that is a perpetual embarrassment to them.  Unfortunately, Todd Akin is more than that.  He is out to punish all the women out there who are trying to fool us as to whether they were or were not raped.  Evidently the litmus test for this atrocity is whether or not the lady becomes pregnant.  In this man’s mind, a positive pregnancy test equals no, “legitimate” rape.            

Folks, I was active in Missouri politics for decades.   I started volunteering for local campaigns in 1968.  I have stuffed envelopes, looked up phone numbers and gone door to door for candidates running for everything from school board to governor of the state.  I was on the Missouri speakers’ bureau for President Reagan and worked with the White House advance team for the first George Bush.  I know Todd Akin.  On this man’s best day he has nothing beyond an average intelligence.  There is not a single idea that comes from his mouth that he hasn’t passed, hat-in-hand, to his base with a querulous look on his face asking, “Will you love me if I do this?”  He has made a home for himself in the extreme right wing of the party and, worst of all, has decided that that niche is more important to him than the Republican Party itself.  He proved that today by not removing himself from the Senatorial race and allowing someone with a chance of winning to take his place.

            Akin has not just lost this race—and deservedly so—he has lost the rest of the state and its down ticket offices for Missouri.  While people may continue to vote their original choice for President, they will switch to the Democratic side of the ticket on the next tier and, as is the typical pattern, will continue on that side for the rest of the ballot.  I am nothing if not a political realist.  Anyone who doesn’t think Akin has single-handedly handed his state to the Democrats is living in Fantasyland.

 He doesn’t care!

            There was a better choice.  Sarah Steelman was on the primary ballot that elected Akin.  She has been a state Senator and State Treasurer.  She has a master’s degree in economics.  She has worked successfully with business, industry and academia.  In 2008 the New York Times listed her as one of 19 women who might someday run for President.  She is smart, caring and politically savvy.  Somehow, the vampires of the far right decided that Akin was a better choice.  Those people need to reexamine what they really want from the Republican Party.

But this column is not about Akin.  It is about my daughters.  I have spent a life time trying (quite successfully) to raise girls who are smart, strong and independent.  I worry about them too much.  I keep trying to raise them when I should let them go.  I know they are women, but I carry them in my heart as if they are still my girls.  And God Himself can not lift the curse I will put on anyone who would hurt them.  I do not want Todd Akin making laws for my girls.  I don’t want him purporting to represent them in any way.  This country can correct bad government.  It can easily survive six more years of Claire McCaskill.  But my daughters should not have to put up with six minutes of the solipsistic ignorance of a man who would rather pimp for the far right than work for a better government. 

Thanks to all former Missouri Senators for asking Akin to step down.  They kept the faith.