Republicans lately have been nominating some pretty extreme right-wing candidates to compete in general elections for House and Senate seats. And as Rev. Al Sharpton explained on PoliticsNation Wednesday, after Tuesday night’s primary, Missouri is no exception.
Rep. Todd Akin will face off in November against the Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill. Remember him? He’s the guy who thinks “America has been subjected now to the stage three cancer of Socialism and exhibit one is the takeover of one-sixth of our economy through Obamacare.”
Akin has also referred to President Obama as “a complete menace to our civilization,” and said that a “hatred of God” is at the heart of liberalism.
In other recent primary races, Republicans have nominated similarly far-right candidates, like Richard Mourdock in Indiana, or Ted Cruz in Texas. Cruz has said he wants to abolish the Department of Education. Mourdock derided administration efforts to create jobs in his home state by declaring: “I didn’t take a pledge that I would support every job in Indiana under whatever means it takes to do it.”
Though Akin and the other candidates mark the increasingly rightward shift of the Republican party, his nomination is probably good news for McCaskill, who would have faced a tougher re-election fight against a more moderate Republican. Some of the most extreme Republican candidates in 2010—like Sharron Angle in Arizona, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, and Ken Buck in Colorado—were defeated by Democrats despite the nationwide Republican wave.
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