The Next Todd Akin?

UPDATE: Link has been updated. It would seem Dick Black actually voted for the law, and was raising concerns about false accusations.

Just remember when you lament that we don’t get Republicans willing to stand up for say, repealing the Hughes Amendment or weakening the National Firearms Act, that they absolutely are willing to go waaaay out on a limb for the only people in the right coalition that are as good at organizing and manipulating government as the progressive left. Gun owners are a force because we are capable of delivering some epic punishment when politicians displease us. We are good at the stick, but not so much the carrot. The religious-right is far better at the carrot than the stick. In some ways the carrot works better. The stick will make them leave you alone. The carrot will actually get them to dance for you.

Apparently they’ll dance even if it means losing. One can argue that the “War on Women” is overblown and unfair, and maybe Dick Black was only raising a point about evidentiary standards. But the reason that attacks like this work is because voters buy into it. Why? That’s the question the Republican coalition needs to keep asking itself.

7 thoughts on “The Next Todd Akin?”

  1. Gee, wouldn’t it be swell if these Religious Right people who are not adverse to going out on a limb for something like repealing spousal rape laws, put that much energy into the gun rights they give so much lip-service to around election time?

    Wanna bet that dildo legislator talked extensively about gun rights while campaigning, but never once mentioned spousal rape — at least in front of a general public audience? (I think that used to be called “stealth,” but supposedly that doesn’t exist anymore.)

    I would argue that it is not so much whether the Religious Right uses a carrot or a stick, as it is that when they get people into office, those people act on the issues they really believe in, as opposed to acting on the populism necessary for them to express to win elections — e.g., fiscal conservatism, gun rights, etc., which are nothing but decoy issues for them. I doubt that someone who went to say, Bob Jones U. needs either a carrot or a stick to motivate them to Religious Right issues.

    Perhaps gun owners would fare better if Jesus had mentioned “buying a sword” a few more times than he did. Though come to think of it, Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, yet that’s a far bigger motivating/action issue with most of that crowd than gun rights, which arguably Jesus addressed obliquely. Funny how some theology works.

    1. The linked post has been updated. Surprise, surprise, he was talking about the evidentiary obstacles to getting a conviction, and the comment was taken out of context to make him look bad.

      So yes, in 2002, it appears that Virginia did not yet have a law criminalizing rape by spouse, and the House voted in favor of it. But Dick Black objected to on evidentiary grounds. Commenters are now telling me he ultimately voted in favor of it, despite the concerns he announced.

      Rule 1: The Media lies.

      But the final conclusion of this post is only reinforced by that. Even those of us who know how the liberals and the media (but I repeat myself) will lie and twist things were ready to believe. Why? That’s the question the Republican coalition needs to start asking itself.

  2. I take it you posted (and Andy B commented) before Ace added his update. Black, and at least one of his Democrat fellow legislators, raised objections to the risk of false accusations. At the time Black made that statement Virginia had no law against spousal rape, and despite his misgivings he voted in favor of the law.

    Imagine for a moment that every business meeting you participate in during your entire professional life was being recorded. Do you think there might be a 15 second clip somewhere that people who hate you and want to harm you professionally could use to make you look like a monster? Particularly people who are competing against you for a promotion? That’s exactly what that video clip that Ace linked to is.

    As for the GOP not standing up for gun rights, what exactly is a pro-gun politician going to say that his opponent couldn’t deceptively edit to make look exactly like this ad? You mention the Hughes Amendment and the NFA – it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what the ads would look like against a politician vocally supporting easier civilian access to machine guns, sawed off shotguns and “silencers”.

    From following the tactics of the gun banners, you know the leftists lie shamelessly to consolidate power to themselves. Gun related issues obviously aren’t the only things they’re willing to lie about. Like it or not we’re stuck with a de facto two party system, and if we don’t want to be governed by the party that’s openly hostile to gun ownership we can’t be scared away from confronting the left’s lies about other controversial issues.

    1. Yeah, but it’s more fun for some people to scream and shout and hate on the Most Dreaded Enemy than to think.

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