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Attaturk, that Iowan to the north, had much fun mocking Missouri’s GOP senate nominee, Representative Todd Akin for his comments on “legitimate rape.” And those comments were truly worthy of mockery.
To people here in Missouri, Akin’s comments were not terribly surprising. Akin is a known commodity — known to be highly conservative and well in keeping with a non-trivial slice of the Missouri electorate.
Like Br’er Rabbit telling Br’er Fox not to throw him in the briar patch, Claire McCaskill ran ads on Fox News during the GOP primary fight, calling Akin “too conservative for Missouri”. With an endorsement like that, conservatives in the GOP primary race were happy to hand Akin a victory with 36% of the vote. His two challengers were John Brunner (a conservative businessman trying to run a Romney-style “I know how to run things” campaign) who got 30%, and Sarah “I Want to be a Palin” Steelman who got 29%. The GOP primary was always going to go to the candidate who could best appeal to the most conservative elements of the Missouri GOP, and that was Akin.
And it wasn’t even close.
News flash to the rest of the nation: the 36% who supported Akin are neither surprised nor bothered by Akin’s comments. He may have said publicly what perhaps (for political reasons) ought to have been kept private, but make no mistake. The far right wing of Missouri’s republican party likes this guy and likes what he said. Period. If Akin were to quit the race because of pressure from Romney or Mitch McConnell, they’d be beyond angry. Akin is their guy, and they would not take kindly to outside agitators forcing him to quit.
Akin is not an aberration in the Missouri GOP. This is the state that gave the nation Rush “She’s a slut” Limbaugh, after all, as well as John “cover up the lady parts on that statue in the lobby” Ashcroft.
But this is also the state whose internal political debates over slavery — conducted with the same sense of nuance and humility as Limbaugh, Ashcroft, and Akin discuss sex — shaped the pen and wit of young Samuel Clemens. If Missouri’s politicians were reasonable folks, Clemens might never have taken up political commentary and satire as Mark Twain.
I look at my kid and his classmates and wonder which of them will grow up to be the next great political satirist. God knows that with folks like Akin around, there’s plenty for them to work with as they learn the fine art of political snark.
UPDATE: County by county primary results are here. Looking at the map, you can see a couple of things. (1) The big dark blue patch just west and north of St. Louis is Akin’s conservative home district. (2) The blue patch in the southwestern corner of the state is John Ashcroft country. (3) The blue patch in the southeastern corner of the state is where Rush has his roots.
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David Dayen has more on the history of Akin’s comments.
Thank you for a view from courtside.
Peterr is right on the money, even though he’s from “damnlibrul” Kansas City. Here in the dark heart of the Ozarks, folks agree with Akin and think McCaskill is living way out there in Obama-land.
More from Akin, from ThinkProgress (via Mr. Pierce):
County by county results are here. Looking at the map, you can see a couple of things.
(1) The big dark blue patch just west and north of St. Louis is Akin’s conservative home district.
(2) The blue patch in the southwestern corner of the state is John Ashcroft country.
(3) The blue patch in the southeastern corner of the state is where Rush has his roots.
(4) Brunner’s biggest base (the red counties) was in the center of the state, especially around Columbia (University of Missouri) and Jefferson City (state capital and home to lots of lobbyists and business interests).
(5) Steelman’s support (green) came from the same places that love Sarah Palin.
THanks for a report from the trenches, Peterr.
Thanks.
You want more data on the state of Missouri politics?
The new speaker of the Missouri House is a Birther.
PeterR, Thank you.
In response to your wondering about who the next great political satirist might be….
This is oldish, but when my son, now 24, was 17 he wrote a poem which contained the lines…
Hell is frozen,
And, Bush is back. Not exactly satire, but nevertheless, important words.
I think a lot of the satire may come from the musicians these days, as well.
Oh, and linking this post to Teddy’s LN last night….There’s idiots Everywhere! (Sorry, no link for that. Just my experience.)
Good post Peterr, Rec’d.
Sounds like this guy is the Ozark stereotype, and is about to advocate legalizing incest; if only to assuage his conscience.
Thanks for the insights. I had a feeling that this was the case, and that Akins’ constituents pretty much agree with him. When people say stuff like – well even conservative women won’t for him – they’re not familiar with the territory.
I’m not from MO, but I have family members on the east coast who most likely *agree* with Akins. A sibling is a very very good friend of Icky Ricky Santorum and did heavy campaigning for him. You do the math.
It’s a sad commentary about how certain forms of “regligulousness” have been twisted & even perverted to mold the authoritarian mind-set.
For me, this is just part of the ongoing Conservative War on Women.
You from Pennsyltucky, Oni?
Romney and Ryan disavowed Akins remarks, and Senator Scott Brown (R) of Massachusetts said he should not be in Congress. Joe Scarborough said he should drop out.
Missouri should hang its head if it is that far out of the conservative mainstream (almost an oxymoron).
McCaskill and Obama are indeed similar politically, and neither of them is out there. Both are center right.
I think you’ve got it backwards.
From the standpoint of Akin’s 36%ers, it’s Romney, Ryan, and Brown who are out of the conservative mainstream. “See — it’s proof that they’re RINOs!!!”
I know that Obama/McCaskill are not way out there, but all my friends and neighbors here in scenic Jeff City think otherwise. Jeff City is the oud home of Rush’s bust, after all. Wingnut Central.
Missouri, the show me state – they have. Thanks for a great post. Recommended.
If 36% of Republican 2012 primary voters in Missouri were the majority of the nation’s Republicans, you would be correct.
Your earlier post had implied that McCaskill is a lot more conservative than Obama and I was disagreeing with that implication.
As far as Jeff City determining what is or is not “out there,” I’d best xip my lip.
Sorry. I should not have said what your earlier post implied, but rather that I had read it to mean that that McCaskill was more conservative than Obama, but the people of Missouri mistakenly thought they were the same.
sounds like a great place to be a woman.
no wonder Pat Metheny left Missouri.
Originally. Don’t live there now but most of my rightwing family does.
I said in other posts that I’d like to see Akin stay in the race. IMO, there is a significant enough minority of conservatives who have “beliefs” like this. I’d like Akin to remain in the spotlight, fwiw, so that his viewpoints can become better known.
I’m not a fan of McCaskell, but let this authoritarian stay in the race for all the world to learn what he believes and how he feels women should be treated.
I grew up in KCMO. The people there were strange but I never felt there was any more misogyny there than any where else I’ve been.
But the Ozarks sure had a bunch of ignorant people in them and the bootheel! Spare me!
Well, since it’s really what the whole Republican party believes, might as well have him front and center, otherwise they’ll try to make nicey to us and pretend they don’t loathe women, blacks and Hispanics ( everyone who isn’t a bubba, in other words) like they do
What ever befalls the “citizens” that vote for these assholes they are deserving of everything that’s coming their way. No sympathy for fascists.
Not for the world to learn what “he” believes but let the world learn what assholes many, if not most, Americans are, as if they already didn’t know.
Should have known better. “America’s Got Talent” is on this evening. One of the favorites is a man whose act is having someone hit him in the balls with different objects. The American public deserves everything coming their way for allowing themselves to be made into idiotic assholes.
Completely OT, except that I think that Mark Twain would have been a fan, but RIP Phillis Diller. Lordy, but that woman made me laugh when I wasn’t really sure where my next laugh would come from. I hope that flights of angels bring her and Fang together again.
But what about those of us who know better than to vote for people like that but get stuck with them anyway? As Peterr reminded us earlier in another thread, our other senator is Roy Blunt. Shudder.
Sad but true.
I think TV, at least American style, has a lot to do with where we are now.
Sad considering Missouri was the home of Truman, someone that had guts, vision and wasn’t afraid of a good fight. Now the Democrats are led my wimps and sell outs like McCaskill and Obama. A hard rains a gonna fall.
Truman was a great President in many ways. He and FDR (also flawed) are my political heroes, maybe because i never got to follow them on a daily basis.
However, Truman also dropped the atom bomb twice and got us into the cold war, among many other things. And, Truman thought it acceptable to join the klan, if only to get votes, as though it were only, as Haley Barbour once said of the WCC, a group of local businessmen.
However, Truman went on to integrate the Army racially in 1948, something I wonder if Barbour would ever have done, even in these times. Not only that, but he signed that order in July 1948, while running for President and very much needed the solid and solidly segregated South (then solidly Democratic).
Now, that is political courage, as was almost everything Truman did, even things with which I disagree to my core.
Actually, there is some support for Akins position. Unfortunately for him , it harkens back to Medieval times. In The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, Mortimer, @ 56 one reads:
“The implication is that if a man wants to seduce a woman, and rapes her so brutally that she derives no pleasure from the experience, she should not conceive.”
This is, I suggest, in keeping with current Republican thought.
Im sorry, i cant apply the term conservative to this Akin character,my classification for him,and ALL HIS ILK…is TERMINALLY STUPID..these morons can not be trusted to make ANY decisions for the PUBLIC…the end!