Sean Casten's bilious statements

Sean Casten, the Democrat challenging Rep. Peter Roskam in the 6th Congressional District, pronounced recently that aborting a baby is like "having gallbladder surgery." I would argue that though Mr. Casten's mother did not abort Sean (a good thing), her son's intelligence has apparently not moved beyond that of a gallbladder (not so good for the 6th District). Forget the moral absurdity of Mr. Casten's assertion, and ignore his ignorance of medical facts; we must at least credit him for his political candor. Mr. Casten describes the pro-choice position perfectly.

But now we must ask ourselves why the race for this seat is a dead heat. Illinois is nearly completely submerged in a sea of blue, with only a few red peaks showing above the water, like drowning heads. I appeal to conservatives and moderates and all right-thinking gallbladders in the 6th district to keep Rep. Roskam in Congress. True, Roskam has become an establishment Republican, up to his knees in the "swamp." But he remains far better, for Illinois' economy and our shared culture, than the alternative, who is a creature of the Left, ideologically grotesque and beyond swampy.

Mr. Casten, in another moment of Progressivist profundity, likened President Trump to Osama bin Laden, saying both "have figured out how to use the bully pulpit to activate young men." By this criterion, Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University is also like bin Laden, since he employs his position to "activate young men." We may, following Casten's inane logic, regard every youth pastor in the country as being like a terrorist leader.

But we need not follow Casten's political logic, or do his math on economics. Gallbladders, Mr. Casten should know, store bile, an alkaline fluid aiding digestion, and also - in Casten's world - a substance derived from anger and irritability.

Alexander Lee

West Chicago