What they're saying: Rep. Todd Akin invokes "stage 3 cancer of socialism"

The winner of Missouri's GOP primary thinks socialism is "unbiblical"

Published August 8, 2012 3:07AM (EDT)

On Tuesday, Rep. Todd Akin, an engineer and self-described "avid student of the U.S. Constitution," defeated his primary opponents, earning the right to challenge Sen. Claire McCaskill in November. Akin won the primary with McCaskill's unsolicited aid, probably because she thinks he's a polarizing figure who'll turn off swing voters with his strange religious and historical views.

Akin is fond of the “stage three cancer socialism" metaphor (he used it to describe the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act, and while describing what federal student loans had done to the country in a recent debate), and of pointing out how he thinks that America is slowly devolving towards what he says was the Soviet Union's model.

A certain number of years ago there was a thing called the Soviet Union and they were bad guys [he told Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert in 2009]. And they were a bunch of communists and they were socialists, and what was it that they thought? They thought that the job of the government should be to provide you, first of all, with a job and then they wanted the government to give you healthcare and food and housing and an education. And one thing particular about them: They didn't wanted you to talk about God ever.

And now in our country, let's see, we’ve got all this government spending going on, so the government can provide you with healthcare and a job and food and housing and an education, and it’s politically correct not to talk about God because if you did that, gentlemen, you’d realize your rights come from God.

Akin has a unique read on Thanksgiving that he explained in a presentation from the House floor. “It’s commonly told, people, that the Pilgrims came here for religious freedom," he said. "Of course, that is not true. In fact, much of what you hear, the stereotypes of history, in fact, are not true. They had religious freedom in Holland, so they didn’t come to America for religious freedom…”

The real turkey and stuffing, as it were, comes when he gets to socialism:

“Governor [William] Bradford knew that socialism was unbiblical [sic]," Akin said. "He knew it was a bad idea. It wasn’t going to work. Eventually they were forced to throw it out because they were going to starve to death if they kept trying to make the socialism work … It was a form of theft, and it was not a good system.

"Governor Bradford knew his Bible well enough to know that socialism was in violation of God’s law," Akin continued. "God’s law says, ‘Thou shall not steal,’ it allows for the ownership of private property, and it never gives a government the right to take something that belongs rightfully to one person and redistribute it to someone else. Governor Bradford understood that far better than the pastors of our churches in America do today."


By Santiago Wills

MORE FROM Santiago Wills


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

2012 Elections Congress Conservatism Republican Party Tea Party Things They're Saying