Letters: Wedge issues in 2012

Re “Obama borrows a GOP tactic,” News Analysis, April 28

Democrats have used wedge issues for decades. That’s what identity politics is: playing one group off another for political gain. In the process, they sow division.

Abortion is a wedge for both parties (coat hangers in back alleys and so on). And don’t forget Social Security. When any reform proposal is raised, Democrats scare Grandma by telling her the GOP wants to cut off her checks. President Obama did just that last summer during the debt limit debate. It was a scare tactic, but it worked.

Jim Bass

Thousand Oaks

Wedge issue? If females make up 50.8% of the U.S. population and most use some form of birth control at some point in their lives, access to contraception and women’s healthcare is not a wedge issue; it a fundamental quality-of-life and health issue for the majority of the population.

Ask any woman you happen to see: Reproductive freedom is important to me.

Susan Lepard

Camarillo

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