Final Aches and Pains (Or Akins and Palins)

OK...sooo... this is the last time I will bloviate on the Akin thing.  I promise.  I have listened to all the talking heads on FOX, MSNBC, local Fox and CNN.  I have read the Post (St. Louis Post Dispatch), The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.  The local folks on 97.1 FOX Radio have really stayed loyal to Congressman Akin and they are to be complimented for their constancy.  I have talked to people liberal and conservative (I have friends who are both... creepy).  A few final observations:

1.  This was no liberal media "gotcha" experience.  He was interviewed on local FOX.  Jaco asked normal questions.  Jaco did not jump on it or even follow up.
2.  It is Republicans who want the guy to back out so stop talking about the Democrats and the Liberals.  They all want him.
3.  He is not ready for prime time.  He was not prepared for a question that had to come, even on FOX.
4.  America is nuanced on abortion.
5.  This man is not in the main stream of his party.
6.  The Republicans are correct, we should be talking about the economy.
7.  The Democrats are correct in pointing out that the Republicans running will put radical social conservatives in office and in control. That has to be discussed as well.

Here is what will happen.  Akin will withdraw before the real deadline.  he will be replaced at the last minute by someone who will not have to answer a lot of hard questions, will not be Todd Akin and will offer the Republicans a chance to win the Senate.  It absolutely will happen that way.  Nothing else can happen.  Also, people will look beyond abortion and start listening to Akin about repealing the 17th Amendment and allowing State legislatures to pick Senators.  They will listen to him on school lunches.  He is not electable.  He is a good man, and a true believer and he is the best example of Missouri Taliban.  He will enforce his understanding of God's will on us and do his best to put in place a conservative Christian Theocracy.

They will get rid of him but it will NOT be the Liberals making it happen.  the Liberals want this fight. I am done with this one.  End of September we have a new Republican running for Senate in Missouri.

Todd Aching

Sooooo.... the Show Me State.  We have become reliably red.  Formerly a swing state we now cannot be prouder of our conservative values and it is reflected in our politicians.  Our State House is cornered and controlled by rural conservatives who do not trust government, city people, democrats or really anything.  Public education.  Bad.  Public programs for the poor.  Bad.  Public lunch at school.  Bad.  Government programs for poor.  Bad.  Government support of farms... well, bad in theory.  There is nothing government can do to help.  Free enterprise is the answer to everything if government would just...get out of the way.

We elect people who are “right” on the issues of small government.  Right on the issues of “the Constitution”.  Right on the issues of the democrats being “wrong”.  Right about the man in the White House being “the wrong guy at the wrong time”.  By electing these people who are “right’ and who cannot even talk to people on the other side of the aisle because of their “wrongness” and cannot even here the word compromise because it it sacrifices their values we are forced to embrace and elect wholly dogmatic people who are extreme on alot of issues.  We forget that just because their “purity” allows them to see our way on key issues that these same flawed people bring their zeal to every issue, whether we agree with them on those are not, and they bring that zeal to these same issues and it leads to totally unacceptable results.

We saw that yesterday with Todd Akin.  he is a fine man.  A Christian man.  A family man.  other than being minorly corrupted by power my guess would be that his core values are admitable in almost every way.  Yet life has brought him to a place where he can believe that raped women excrete a certain chemical which prevents them from getting pregnant.  This allows his to be totally certain of his pro life in all circumstances, even in the cases of rape, because a legitimately raped woman could only become pregnant in extremely rare circumstances and if she did become pregnant, it probably was not rape anyway...right?  I understand how this happens because cognitive dissonance is not something this type of ideologue can countenance.  That there might even be a reasonable opposing view is not possible if you have the moral certainty of God in your back pocket.  That you might be wrong on what is so morally clear to you is inconcievable so you invent and/or embrace theories which justify your position rather than admit there is any possible nuance.

I admire Todd Akin and his values.  I would surmise that I hold a lot of similar values regarding life, faith, family and government but I would never kid myself that I “know” what is right for government.  I think I know what is best.  I would work for that but the idea that God was mandating my views of faith and Chrisitianity to be carried out in government seems...un Christian to me.  That type of faith leads to Taliban-like craziness and what we are seeing is that true believers, dogmatic, doctrinal people like Todd Akin lead us away from the very Constitutional values they want to espouse.  Away from a melting pot and towards a Christian theocracy based on their particular understanding of Christianity.  The Taliban is alive and well in our Country.  When we elect them pretending that they are “like us” or “share our values” while ignoring their words and their actions we move towards an intolerant, unforgiving and unintentionally, un-Christian country.

I don’t know what Todd will do tomorrow by 5:00 when he needs to make a decision to stay in the race but when you consider him, watch his whole interview.  He did not mis-speak.  he spoke from his heart and he revealed a lot and presented Missouri with a clear choice.  Sadly, I do not know whether we will remember and that we will make a right choice in November but Todd Akin is not the right choice for Senator.