One of my co-workers marched giddily into my office today with a big grin on his face crowing about how Todd Akin's bat-crap-crazy remarks about "legitimate" rapes had "gift-wrapped and delivered" the Missouri U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Claire McCaskill.
"It's in the bag for Senator McCaskill. She's definitely going to win now. No way that idiot guy Akin can win...no way," he beamed.
I asked him how he could be so sure.
"Are you kidding me?" he responded. "How can anybody, especially any woman in her right mind vote for him after what he said? Every woman in Missouri probably hates him. He's toast."
Every woman in Missouri should hate him. But the problem is, I told my friend, this stuff is not news to those on the far right. Taking women back to the Middle Ages appears to be one of the pillars of what they truly believe. It's mainstream for them. For example, according to recent Bloomberg News reports:
As a U.S. House member from Wisconsin, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan has co-sponsored 38 anti-abortion measures, including some that make no allowance for rape. Ryan’s co-sponsorships include bills that would restrict government funding and declare that states have the right to protect life beginning at fertilization. Ryan, Akin’s colleague in the House, has sponsored legislation with him that also sought to distinguish between types of rape: Instead of “legitimate,” it used the word “forcible.”
So, Akin isn't some outlying fool espousing his own misguided BS. This is hardcore Republican ideology. All Akin did was openly tell the truth publicly about what many conservative wingnuts wholeheartedly believe. "The people who were going to vote for him in the first place are still going to vote for him and might be even more inspired and supportive of him than ever," I told my co-worker. "I'm not so sure this is a done deal. The last poll I saw had them running neck-and-neck."
He walked out of my office shaking his head muttering, "No way...no way Akin can win."
I suppose lots of people are thinking that way, but what if the unthinkable happens and a Neanderthal like Akin manages to win a statewide election and becomes a United States Senator? What would that say about the people of the Show-Me State? What would it say about us as Americans? In many ways both the Missouri Senate election and the general Presidential election can be looked at as referendums on gender equality.
I'd like to think Akin cooked his own goose, too. But in this highly-charged, hyper-racialized-and-genderized partisan era where so many are fooled by GOP wedge issues that they willfully vote against their own best interests, I'm not so sure.
Nevertheless, maybe my co-worker is right. Maybe there is no way Akin can win. Perhaps women voters are too smart to be bamboozled by a charlatan like Akin and won't fall for the "Please forgive me, I misspoke" okee doke. If not, this could be a very tough election...not only for Senator McCaskill, but for President Obama as well. If Romney/Ryan and Arkin win, the elections of 2012 will represent a ginormous step backwards for America as a nation and us as a people -- especially women.
The GOP is anti-abortion (even in cases of rape and incest as Akin and Ryan support), it favors bizarre personhood amendments, endorses mandatory ultrasounds, wishes to ban contraceptive insurance coverage and wants to kill planned parenthood. Simply put, the GOP is an extreme danger to women's rights in general and women's health rights in particular.
If they succeed now, where will it stop...with an attempt to repeal the 19th Amendment? I ask: How can any woman or any man who cares about women vote for any candidate the GOP puts forward in 2012?