In recent months, we have been hearing a lot of back and forth banter about what action each presidential candidate would take when presented with any given issue. How hard would President Barack Obama be on foreign policy? What would Gov. Mitt Romney do about the national debt? What would each candidate do to create new jobs in America?
While each candidate has his own beliefs about what the right course of action is to take for various issues, it is my contention that at this point, none of that matters. In fact, after all the debates and all the analysis talking heads have contributed to the mix, it is my belief that there is only one issue which has allowed us to see each candidate for who they truly are. At the end of the day, I cannot give my support to a candidate who allies himself with cronies who inexplicably believe that there are some instances when rape is legitimate.
Of course I am talking about the recent whirlwind of controversy created by Missouri Representative William Akin (R), Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock and vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. It all started during an Aug. 19 interview Akin was giving on KTVI-TV, a television station located in St. Louis.
When asked what he thinks about a woman having an abortion following a pregnancy by rape, Akin replied, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”
First, take a moment to re-read that comment and then consider that it came from a person who is a state representative and was somehow elected to lead in that capacity. Next, take a moment to consider the asinine notion that there is such a thing as a “legitimate rape.” Finally, and perhaps most frighteningly of all, realize that Akin is not the only one who believes this.
Two months after Akin essentially vomited all over women’s reproductive rights and set the debate on abortion back at least ten years, Senate candidate Mourdock opened his mouth and let the drivel spew forth during a debate. When asked to explain his position on abortion, Mourdock said, “Life is that gift from God that I think even if life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” Just when you thought a politician’s comment could not get stupider than Akin’s, here comes Mourdock to prove you wrong.
Vice-presidential candidate Ryan, who described himself in a 2010 interview with The Weekly Standard as being “as pro-life as a person gets” and who has said more recently in several publicized interviews that all abortion should be illegal, including those resulting in rape or incest, is no different from Akin or Mourdock.
We cannot allow these types of people to take office, plain and simple. The fact that these people believe that rape can somehow be “legitimate” not only serves as an indelible stain on each of their characters but also shows us their true, insane colors. There is only one word that can possibly describe the ideals espoused by these three people – dangerous.
It is comforting to me that many Republicans, including former presidential candidate John McCain, Indiana representative Mike Pence, and Senate Minority Leader Mike McConnell, have condemned the statements of Akin and Mourdock, but it doesn’t make everything alright. The simple fact that these people want to represent you and I should make any sensible person physically ill.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Daily 49er.
