Difference in abortion views
overlooked in this campaign

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

One critical point that isn't getting the coverage it deserves in the presidential campaign, and that Democrats seem to be either unwilling or unable to emphasize, is the difference between their views on reproductive rights and those of the Republicans. For me, the bottom line is that it would be evangelicals who'd be driving the nation's policy on a woman's right to biological self determination from behind the scenes of a Romney administration. Evangelicals believe that their opinions and principles are informed by God's will and that any compromise would constitute a heretical rejection of same.

What Americans aren't hearing often enough is that evangelicals and people like Ryan and Romney all believe in "personhood." They believe that an egg becomes a person at the moment of fertilization, that it has the same (or more) constitutional rights as the woman in whose womb it resides and that from the micro second after fertilization, the government has the sacred duty to oversee a woman's pregnancy with an Orwellian authoritarianism that should be frightening to all.

This completely eliminates the concept of personal control over the womb, even in the case of young girls impregnated by rape or incest, and even if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. Romney claims to be more moderate, but he has been on record for years as saying he wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade and that he supports personhood legislation at the state level. This has been the national, anti-choice evangelical strategy for 40 years in the U.S.: kill Roe v Wade and pass personhood laws state by state until all abortions are criminal acts under any/all circumstances, everywhere in America.

I understand that our economy is foremost in the minds of most, and that we're at war. But this open assault on reproductive rights by the Republican party and the religious right should be of equal concern to everybody, because if it succeeds, it will create a sea change in the concepts of constitutional rights and the separation of church and state in America. The fact that the total elimination of a woman's reproductive rights is enshrined in the platform of the "party of less government," is ironic in the extreme.


Romney would give away
the kitchen sink to wealthy

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:
 
Obama deserves another term. While our government is rigged to transfer our nation's wealth upwards, Romney wants to give away the kitchen sink. Giant banks are still too big to fail. Our U.S. government is still online for the next bailout. Romney says let the banking industry regulate itself. National elections are now flooded with money from super pacs that allow the money contributors to easily be hid from public view. Romney agrees corporations are people and their money is a form of free speech. Obama wants to do something about the 5-4 Supreme Court "Citizens United" decision that invalidated our former campaign finance laws in the name of free speech. It is the Republicans who are blocking efforts to address this absurd situation.
 
Romney recently generalized Obama supporters as dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims and untitled.  Why not stand up to the wealthy who are dependent upon U.S. government funds?  The top 10 military contractors whose profits come mostly from U.S. tax dollars are the biggest drain.  Why is this industry allowed to use U.S. tax dollars to lobby for more of the same?  That industry is rampant with fraud, brutal on whistleblowers, and has had millions of dollars disappear without accountability. Romney says give them more.  At lease Obama wants to bring the troops back home.
 


EDITOR'S NOTE: These letters conclude political statements by readers. The U.S. presidential election is just four weeks away, and many expats already have voted. Those who have not will do so shortly. So further discussion is not relevant.