Deadline expires, campaign sadly doesn’t
You would think that a man who wished to abolish the minimum wage, and made comments that women were able to somehow naturally stop ‘legitimate rape’ would not have a political career left. Everything that he’s worked for up until this point would be nothing, and if he were in a political race, he would drop out gracefully, never to be heard from again.
Not in the state of Missouri though. Todd Akin, a candidate for the United States Senate, is still campaigning. After refusing to back out of the race, he gave a weak apology, saying that he simply ‘misspoke.’ He apparently believes that it is his duty to continue campaigning, even comparing himself to former Missouri Sen. Harry Truman. He’s still gunning against the Democratic incumbent in the United States Senate Missouri race, Claire McCaskill, and he shows absolutely no sign of stopping.
Comments such as the one that Akin made, and continues to make, are inexcusable under any circumstance. The comments that he has made have shown ignorance towards his constituents and any member of society that doesn’t fit within his narrow worldview. The role of a politician is to advocate and stand up for all of his or her constituents, not just some. This is clearly a role that Mr. Akin is not able to maintain — he is not politician-material, nor will he ever be.
But the main issue at hand surprisingly isn’t his outrageous comments and his lack of dignity towards rape victims, it’s the fact that misguided Republicans, such as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint continue to support him. In a joint press statement, they mentioned that Akin is a “principled conservative” who fights for freedom. Former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich also weighed in on the matter with a statement saying that it is our “moral obligation” to support him.
Don’t forget about the slew of republican organizations that are still pledging support for him too. In a statement released yesterday, the executive director Rob Jesmer of the National Republican Senatorial Committee said that his organization believes that “Todd Akin is a far more preferable candidate than liberal Sen. Claire McCaskill.”
While I understand that politics are divisive and downright ugly at times, behavior such as this is not acceptable. We, as a nation, cannot move forward unless we can put aside our differences and stand up for what’s right. It is outrageous, and even demeaning, that some people want to put a man in Congress who has proven time and time again that he does not care about everyone equally.
America has unfortunately come to the point in which we favor politics over our true moral obligation. A man that makes disparaging remarks about women and the poor does not deserve election to a federal office and he doesn’t deserve the support of his nationally known colleagues.