It's a recurring Republican theme: "This year's election is going to be about the economy. We're gonna focus like lasers on nothing but the economy and jobs, jobs...wait...did someone say abortion! Let's get 'em, fellas!" And off they go down the familiar conservative abyss.
Poor Mitt Romney. All he wanted to do was talk about the stalled economy and lingering unemployment. But then he went ahead and put Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who never met an anti-abortion bill he didn't like or wish to co-sponsor, on the GOP ticket with him. As it turns out, Ryan is so in bed with Rep. Todd "Magic Sperm-Repelling Vaginas" Akin on issues of rape that they might as well be gay lovers.
So with a little more than two months left before the election, Romney and the Republican Party find themselves mired in a heated debate over the definition of rape, abortion and Medicare, which is another of Ryan's Achilles Heels. But it's their own fault. They simply can't help themselves. They're like junkies, so strung out on emotion and religious dogma that no matter how rosy their campaign picture looks they must destroy it with the social-wedge-issue drug. Election after election after election, regardless of the real issues facing America, they put same-sex marriage, contraception, abortion, religion and weapons at the top of the agenda. Guns, God and Gays. Same old same old. Hey stupid, what happened to It's the economy, stupid!
Shocking as it may seem, the GOP has become the party of rape. It's as if they're going hard after the rapist vote. It's bizarre that the candidates who seek to legislate one tax rate for all want several levels of rape. Who'd have thought in 2012 we'd be parsing the meaning of legitimate vs. illegitimate, and forcible vs...vs...what, "gentle" rape? That we'd still be insisting women go through with pregnancies even if they've been raped or are victims of incest or if their own lives are at risk medically is unconscionable. Jeez, what the hell is wrong with these people?
As my astute girlfriend Phoebe said, "To old, white, rich, God-fearing Republican men women are simply breeders. We exist mainly to birth and raise babies. Getting pregnant is our only legitimate job in life. So it doesn't matter if they impregnate us or if some violent beast rapes us. It's all the same to them."
Which explains Akin's comment about rape that "If God has chosen to bless this person with a life, you don't kill it." Silly me. Here I was all my life thinking rape was a horrific crime. Good to know it's a blessing.
The real blessing this week has been Akin himself. His reprehensible comments not only assured his opponent Sen. Claire McCaskill's re-election, but more importantly it's cast a huge spotlight on the Republican Party, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and exposed them for who and what they really are. Has there ever been a presidential ticket with more contempt for women, the poor and seniors?