Mourdock, Akin don’t speak for GOP

Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the political cartoon published in Friday’s Daily Lobo.

Editor,

What is your issue with overgeneralized political cartoons? I normally don’t mind them — they are there for a purpose, even if that purpose is to incite volatile discussion through the biased viewpoints of an editorial artist at the cost of the targeted party in question.

Friday’s cartoon, however, crossed every line of moral decency possible, and I’m honestly surprised you had the gall to print it.

To generalize the entirety of the Republican Party as religious fanatics driving their support of rape as “God’s will” is atrocious. Let me be clear: One person said that. Sen. Richard Mourdock of Indiana, who just so happens to be Republican, made the statement that “Even if life begins with that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.”

These are the words of one individual lost in delusions of grandeur. So why, in your cartoon, do you not include a photo or political interpretation of Mourdock, and instead use the symbol of the Republican Party as a whole? These are the actions of one person with his own set of beliefs.

I find, however, that an individual voicing his own opinion is much less insulting than the blanket accusation you decided to put out in that cartoon. It is insulting to Republicans who have common sense, it is insulting to those who support pro-life for other morals and beliefs, and to top it off it serves no purpose other than to incite a false opinion in the populace about the party. Because according to you, Daily Hobo, I am a religious fanatic who supports the callous rape of innocent women under the Holy Lord’s name. Leave these blatant political generalizations out of the University newspaper. Yeah, there are Republicans like Mourdock and Rep. Todd Akin with his comment about legitimate rape, but it is a small sample of delusional individuals who are also Republican.

Just because one delusional fanatic said something stupid does not mean every Republican is going to follow like lemmings. Do not loop me, or any decent person with a brain, into your circle of ignorance. If you want to be inflammatory for the sake of being inflammatory, take it elsewhere.

Scott Schaller
Daily Lobo reader