Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Mourdock: "More Dick"

I'm not sure what it is about rape that Republicans find so attractive.
 
No, I'm sure: rape is not about sex, it's about power, but Republicans want to pretend it's about sex:
[Indiana Senate candidate Richard] Mourdock, who's been locked in one of the country's most expensive and closely watched Senate races, was asked during the final minutes of a debate Tuesday night whether abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest.
 
"I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen," Mourdock said.
 
You may remember Mourdock as the Teabagger who ousted Senator Richard Lugar from re-election mostly by painting Lugar as too moderate and too willing to compromise.
 
Compromise: after Teabaggers are gone from Congress, I think they'll realize a harsh lesson has been given to them. Governing and legislating 330 million people demands compromise because you can't have an army of goose-stepping sheep agreeing with every extremist position you pull out of the Koch brothers' asses.
 
Mourdock is the second Teabagging candidate to say something repulsive about rape and its consequences. You may recall Todd Akin and his comments about the impossibility of pregnancy during a "real rape."
 
It's an interesting trope to believe, to be frank: by allowing for degrees of rape, you immediately deflect any challenge from people who's feelings about abortion are more flexible and compassionate than yours. You basically take compassion out of the argument by claiming, in effect, "she had it coming."
 
It doesn't matter if she was pinned to the ground by a man twice her size, had a knife held to her throat and brutally assaulted, penetrated over and over again: if she got pregnant, she wanted to have sex.
 
I've never been much for bondage fantasies, and I can't imagine too many women would find this exciting and welcome. I wonder if Akin or Mourdock were in a prison shower and this happened to them, would they still believe in "illegitimate rape"?
 
Akin at least had the good timing to reveal his disgusting lunacy before the campaign geared up and allowed Romney the opportunity to decry him and to put distance from Akin. Mourdock, however, is currently running television and radio ads featuring both Mitt Romney AND Paul Ryan.
 
Romney can't be sitting comfortably with this. The whole Akin affair took the entire Republican ticket down a peg in polls, and to re-energize the population of women is going to not only hurt Mourdock's chances, but the story will remind women across the nation of the GOP antipathy towards anything in heels.
 
So Richard Mourdock? Thank you. Thank you for being a heartless dickless bastard.