That’s the way it is.

While I agree with you about never voting for Mitt Romney, I disagree about the estate tax. Estate taxes mostly penalize small businesses and family farms, both of which hire people, buy goods and services from other local businesses, and keep the economy running. Estate taxes are another form of double taxation – the person who bequeathed the estate already paid taxes on the income he earned during his lifetime. High taxes in the US encourage entrepreneurs to set up their businesses in foreign countries and to keep and spend their income outside of the US.

It takes quite a lot of capital to start a small business or set up a family farm. It takes even more to keep it running. The estate tax forces the liquidation of small businesses and family farms upon the death of the founder, so as to pay the estate taxes.

Republicans Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are both Roman Catholics. They simply want Roman Catholics and everyone else to have freedom of conscience with regard to not being compelled by the government to do anything that their religion regards as sinful. They are NOT interested in taking away anybody else’s birth control; only in not compelling others to subsidize it. I’m not a Roman Catholic, but I would feel comfortable voting for either of them.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a Mormon. If you want to read about an actual theocracy on US territory, you can do some research about the early days of the Mormon church. I don’t consider Mormons to be Christians; their faith has an entirely different concept of God than we do.