If you ask the average American on the street about what they think about the country’s leadership, the answer will probably be something along the lines of “incompetent,” “terrible,” or “overtly destructive.” Americans tend to disagree about many things, but the one thing that they can agree upon is the poor quality of the persons that they elect to represent them. The phrase “politicians are stupid” is taken as a universal truth, just like “the grass is green,” or “Ryan Gosling is ridiculously attractive.” Americans are pretty jaded about our country’s leadership and to be honest they have reason to be. For the past thirty years or so, good leadership has been rather hard to come by. But occasionally there comes a politician that is so exceptionally dumb, so mind-numbingly doltish as to call into question, not only the quality of our leadership but the future of our survival as a nation. Todd Akin, a senate candidate from Missouri, has been the latest of these political pariahs, exposing us to the constipated visceral horror that is “American democracy in action.”

For the underinformed, Akin recently landed himself in hot water after making the somewhat inane claim that “victims of ‘legitimate rape’ could not  be made pregnant.” Now, ordinarily this could be written off as an example of the backwards state of sex-education in the state of Missouri. Undoubtedly, Mr. Akin also vehemently believes menstruation is just God’s punishment on women for using birth control, and that the Stork is the effective means of child delivery. Ignorant, yes, but forgivable. If Mr. Akin had issued an apology correcting his statements, his campaign could have continued on more or less unaffected. But no- instead of recanting his statements, Mr. Akin doubled down, insisting that he had consulted with medical professionals and that “the female body has biological responses to protect against rape.”

Seriously?

In all fairness, Mr. Akin has subsequently issued several apologies for his statements. However, it is readily apparent that this is not because he had realized that he was wrong. Instead, it is a move born out of self-preservation, what with the entirety of the Republican Party (and everybody else for that matter), condemning his remarks and urging him to quit the race. In spite of this opposition, he has refused to step down, in large part due to the fact that he still has a strong base of support among Missourian conservatives. And this is what is frustrating. Our democracy enshrines the idea of free speech and Mr. Akin certainly had the right to express himself. However, freedom of speech also means that we should take responsibility for what we say. And up until this point, Mr. Akin has not had been held accountable. He will very likely remain in the election. Who knows? He might even win it. And that is the problem- voters are not willing to hold their politicians responsible for being ignorant, bigoted, and incompetent. There is an old  saying that “people generally get the government that they deserve.” The current gridlock in Washington, and the hysterical nature of the presidential campaign demonstrate this fairly well. But until Americans start holding politicians like Mr. Akin responsible for their own ignorance, the country will continue to deteriorate and Americans will continue to “get what we deserve.”