Email
PrintAkin’s insult to women
Editor, Index-Tribune:
The mainstream Republican outrage over Rep. Todd Akin’s rape remarks is so noble. And so disingenuous.
Akin’s comments barely stepped over the line of clear and consistent Republican policies on abortion. The outrage springs from the possibility of losing a Senate race, not from the insult to American women embodied in Akin’s words.
If you think that’s overstating the case, check out the Republican obsession with abortion in Congress in recent years. Check out the Republican election-year platform to be adopted next week at its presidential convention. It includes support for a constitutional amendment that would ban all abortions in the country. It doesn’t bother to clarify “all” or to make any exceptions.
But perhaps the Akin performance will motivate the platform folks to take another look – just as the party is taking another look at him.
Ray Schuster
Sonoma
Please note: Your full name will be published with your comment.
Akin is an idiot!! This spoken from a Right-Wing Christian
Conservative who thinks abortion as "birth control" is wrong.
As far as OBSESSION goes....Many Democrats I know (especially
women) are so obsessed with issue that it becomes the only
issue they care about when voting people into office. The
Democratic Party leadership is OBSESSED with this issue to
the point where they don't even allow Pro-Life speakers to
speak at the Democratic National Convention. I can think
of many Pro-Choice and Pro-Gay speakers who gave addresses
at Republican National Conventions. So based on thism which
party seems to be more obsessed?? I though the Democratic
Party was the party of tollerance and diversity?? They are...
when it agrees with the policy making leadership within the
Democrtic Party. Kind of reminds me of all those Free-Speech
loving lefties at UC Berkley that champion Free-Speech. They
love it when it agrees with their cause and beliefs. When it
doesn't, they want to shut you up and deny your right to speak
through protests, marches, etc: Soooooo... tollerant...aren't
they LOL!!!
Wayne, you said Akin is an idiot.
Not sure if most of today’s Tea Party branch of the Republican Party would agree with you. Many high profile Republicans, like Mike Huckabee for example, think Akin is some kind of hero.
You say Democrats and women are “obsessed” with pro-choice issues.
Now why is that? Could it be the fact that Republicans are continually trying to take away women’s right to choose for themselves? I thought you guys were against government intrusion into our lives!
You say “I can think of many Pro-Choice and Pro-Gay speakers who gave addresses at Republican National Conventions.”
Really? I remember during the Republican Debates Stephen Hill, a soldier who served in Iraq, asking a question and being roundly booed by the audience. I also remember that none of the candidates had the courage to respond to this blatant disrespecting of our military because someone in it was gay.
You said: “I thought the Democratic Party was the party of tollerance and diversity??”
It is. Look at the delegate demographics of the Republican 2008 convention; overwhelmingly white. Look at the delegate demographics of the Democratic 2008 convention; mixed ethnicities, mixed genders, and in general a fair representation of the diversity of our country.
You said: “they want to shut you up and deny your right to speak through protests, marches, etc.”
No they don’t Wayne; they are only exercising their constitutional right to protest, guaranteed by our Constitution.
Akins not an idiot Wayne, he spoke the truth about what Republicans believe; he just got caught saying it.
Tom...Tom...Tom. Where do I begin?? Let me start with addressing
the most ridiculous (and most offensive I might add) thing you
said. The reason the demographics of any Republican event are
mostly white is because people of color make their decision not
to be there. PERIOD!! Their will be no signs outside of the GOP
Convention Center in Florida saying, "Blacks not welcomed or
Hispanics not allowed". You take their choice and turn it on it's
head and try and twist it into some kind of an example of Racism!!
Pretty low of you Tom. Last I heard, 80-90% of blacks vote Democrat because they want to. Not because they were told they had to!!I
guess in your world the city of Sonoma must be extremely racist
against African Americans. After all, you don't see hardly any
blacks in the demographics in Sonoma. Right Tom?? I think you
owe an apology for making that kind of a statement Tom.
I was discussing GOP Conventions and you jump to some GOP
debate. Stay on topic Tom. Give me some names of Pro-Life
speakers at any Democratic Convention. I will give you one
that comes to mind, who was openly Pro-Choice and spoke
at a GOP convention...Christine Todd Witman.
Tom...many Conservative groups and speakers have been
denied the right to speak at UC Berkley because they
don't conform to the left leaning tendencies of both
the staff and students. What about these groups "right
to speak" also guaranteed by the Constitution?? After
all, isn't the moto of that left-wing radio station,
KPFA in Berkley, "Free Speech Radio"??? Why can't they
apply that same principle at the UC Berkley campus??
It is because the "free speech" they speak of is the speech
that agrees with what they want to hear.