"Rape is a Leftist Myth"
Aug. 21st, 2012 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dexfarkinI don't really have any follow-up on the whole Akin thing, beyond the puzzled horror at the things that have come wriggling out of the hole that the issue has torn open. The title of this post was one of my favourite comments, but I think the all-time winner goes to the one who responded to Dana Loesch's tweet defending Akin, with 'WHORE! God-fearing WOMEN neither read or write!'
The thing that strikes me about this election season is that I think we're really seeing the spasms of a nation in flux for the first time. There is a real sense that this is the cultural last stand for the Tea Party ideal of the dominant White America. A Romney presidency would not be the Apocalypse, but it's biggest legacy could very well be a 7-2 Conservative Supreme Court for the next several decades. The long term effects of that will do more to reshape the fate of the US than Romney's rather petty dreams of never ever paying taxes again.
Think about it. Thanks to Citizen's United, the very nature of how campaigns are fought has completely changed, and this election will represent over $2.5 billions of dollars in spending. What happens when things like enviromental protections or assault weapon bans reach the high court? Whether you personally believe in the conservative vision or not, the expansion of the pro-corporate Roberts court will do more to define the next several decades than any elected official or whack-job budget.
The thing that strikes me about this election season is that I think we're really seeing the spasms of a nation in flux for the first time. There is a real sense that this is the cultural last stand for the Tea Party ideal of the dominant White America. A Romney presidency would not be the Apocalypse, but it's biggest legacy could very well be a 7-2 Conservative Supreme Court for the next several decades. The long term effects of that will do more to reshape the fate of the US than Romney's rather petty dreams of never ever paying taxes again.
Think about it. Thanks to Citizen's United, the very nature of how campaigns are fought has completely changed, and this election will represent over $2.5 billions of dollars in spending. What happens when things like enviromental protections or assault weapon bans reach the high court? Whether you personally believe in the conservative vision or not, the expansion of the pro-corporate Roberts court will do more to define the next several decades than any elected official or whack-job budget.
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Date: 2012-08-21 08:37 pm (UTC)Show me where I stated at Akin represents the values of the Romney campaign and you may have a point.
But, if you really want to get into this, sure, I'm game.
Akin wasn't 'awarded the nomination'. He won it outright with 36% of the total votes. Let us be absolutely clear about this. The largest percentage of GOP voters in Missouri thought that Akin best represented their views and values as a member of the US Senate, including all of the extremist elements contained there in.
So you're saying that support comes out only after a Democrat ad said outright 'this is the guy that is so extremely conservative that only wingnuts and fools could possibly support him'. And even if the GOP voters are so easily manipulated, he still polls higher than the 36% of just GOP voters who nominated him in the primary. As of the last poll, 44% of Missouriansstill support Akin's crazy extremist views enough to let him represent them in Congress.
The bottom line is that of course the Democrats wanted to face Akin because he's, well, crazy. And McCaskill's ad buy had the advantage of using his crazy to influence swing voters she needed towards her and energize her base. The fact that Republicans have possibly hit the point that the second a Democrat says 'this is the worst guy' is enough for them to embrace him regardless of the facts says a lot more about the myoptic insanity of the far right than it does about anyone else. The GOP nominated Akin in Missouri; no one else. The GOP embraced him as their candidate. The Democrats did not run a GOTV for Akins. They didn't donate directly to his campaign. They didn't hold up signs and stage rallies for him.
They made an ad buy that said 'this guy is the same crazy far-right extremist as embaressments like Bachmann, making the same crazy statements that the President is trying to destroy America'. So your assertion is wrong - the only way that the Democrats can manipulate the GOP base in such a manner is if they are dominated by extremist and reactionaries of that ilk.
But I should point out, since we're on the 'politics of hate', only one party has enshrined in their platform that gay Americans do not deserve all the rights enjoyed by straight citizens. Only one has enshrined that a woman loses the basic rights of self-determination at the very point of conception, regardless of the circumstances. Only one party had, as part of their natural platform, certain conditions underwhich some Americans get the same freedoms as others.