national stage Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

What if Rape Is a Campaign Strategy? (Updated)

What if Rape Is a Campaign Strategy?

I’m just wondering if the Republican Party has decided that outrageous comments about rape is politically advantageous. The comments we are currently seeing cannot be spontaneous. They’re not being made by some country bumpkin running for city dogcatcher. Instead, these are serious candidates running for major offices (both Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock are running for US Senate in their respective states). Both of these guys have put in a lot of time. Both of these candidates have raised a lot of money. Both these candidates have been on the national stage with major political backing from the RNC.

Mourdock said, “I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from god. And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

Maybe there’s some polling hidden deep in some Republican’s file cabinet (Karl Rove) that suggests talking about rape in religious terms galvanizes evangelicals more than it repulses liberals and moderates. I don’t know. What I do know is that most of the things that are being said at the level of a U.S. Senate candidate is incredibly scripted. There are almost no spontaneous moments. Candidates are very cautious of what they say and how they say it. (Remember George Allen??) A misplaced statement here or there can mean disaster.

The main problem with Mourdock’s statement is that it is really the mainstream Republican position. Here’s what Jon Stewart has to said on the subject.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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When Wright is Wrong

I was willing to stick up for the Reverend Jeremiah Wright when clips were being played. I believe that it is relatively easy to misconstrue the meaning of a sermon by listening to a couple sentences. Immediately after the controversy, the Wright was conspicuously absent from the public eye. I think this was a good thing. I think that his return to the public stage by being interviewed on PBS’s the Bill Moyers Journal was also a good move. His interview with Bill Moyers was thoughtful and illuminating.

If all you wanted to do was tell your side of the story, you were done. You are finished. Clearly Wright had other things in mind. Exactly what these other things were, only Wright can tell us that. We could speculate it probably has to do with enjoying the national stage and/or wanting to cash in on his 15 minutes of fame. Again, I would like to stress that I do not know the Wright’s motivations.

Following the Bill Moyers Journal, Wright was the keynote speaker at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. Wright took this opportunity to distance himself from the thoughtful pastor, we saw just 24 hours earlier. He was, by far, more over-the-top. Finally, his performance at the National Press Club was simply out-there. I’m not sure what he was trying to represent but he seemed to resemble some of the patients that I saw while working in the psychiatric unity that were off of their medications. I’m not the only one with this opinion. I’m not the only one in the black community with this opinion.

There is a rumor that Reverend Barbara A. Reynolds (pictured above) invited Wright to the National Press Club where she is on the selection committee. Interestingly, Reynolds is also a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton. Therefore, the conspiracy theory goes like this: Someone in the Clinton camp asked the Reynolds to entice the Wright to speak and speak openly about his deepest feelings on race, religion and America. I believe that this is hogwash. I don’t think that Clinton’s camp had anything to do with this. I have no data to back up my feelings, it is simply my opinion.

Maybe, Wright did Senator Barack Obama a favor. By acting so completely unhinged, Obama has been allowed to completely and totally distance himself from Wright. Therefore, if Obama wins the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, it will be extremely difficult for the Republicans to break this up and have it stick. Today, Obama formally denounced several of the ideas that Wright was expounding on. Maybe Wright’s 15 minutes of fame is now over and we can get back to talking about lapel pins.