text: I agree it's not an either/or matter, but it's the so-called "pro-life" crowd that turned it into one. They created the false dichotomy between issues that one can conscientiously discern how to vote on and those where there is, supposedly, only one morally justifiable choice at the ballot box.
   
  The issue isn't whether or not a person accept's Catholic teaching on life issues. I accept that teaching wholeheartedly. But I strongly reject the absurd notion that my acceptance of Church teaching means I must vote a certain way.
  
  More than 40 years of that false dichotomy -- which, incidentally, doesn't truly reflect Catholic tradition -- has accomplished absolutely nothing in terms of protecting human life. But it has poisoned the American political system and filled our government with vicious, incompetent people.
  
  But it seems that any monster is okay as long as every couple of years they manage to spout the right "pro-life" platitudes. We don't care what they do the rest of the time.