Garbage Into Congress; Garbage Outa Congress

This is a letter to the editor published in the New York Times January 26th. I typed it out because it's impossible to find a link in that spider web of a website. Anyway, Denis from Belgium makes an excellent direct point:

To the Editor: Re "Three Decades After Roe, a War We Can All Support," by William Saletan (Op-Ed, Jan. 22): It is vital that the endless debate over abortion end quickly. The damage done to the United States in the last 33 years is far worse than people seem to realize. In the United States, this one question dominates elections and Supreme Court nominations.

You elect people with the power to start wars, interpret the Constitution, use nuclear weapons and change Social Security based on their views on abortion. Corrupt is O.K., not very bright is O.K., willing to destroy the environment is O.K., but no way will you vote for someone who disagrees with you on abortion!

Which brings two problems: First, by putting so much focus on this one issue, you let politicians get away with murder on everything else. Second, you necessarily elect people whose intellectual capacity enables them to look at a very complex issue like abortion and see it in simplistic black-and-white terms. The results are there for all to see.

Denis O'Sullivan - Brussels, Jan. 23, 2006