Bush’s Family Policy

In response to “Personal Responsibility Won’t Buy Child Care or Insurance,” by Ellen Goodman, Commentary, Feb. 17:

In true feminist fervor, Goodman holds Barbara Bush as an exemplar of womanhood and feminism but wails pitifully that Mrs. Bush is “sleeping with the enemy,” her husband, a Republican. Goodman, it seems, doesn’t like Republican principles.

Were Goodman not so blinded by her primary agenda and prevailing motives, she might be able to see Barbara’s “your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House but what happens inside your house” as an expression of the Republican credo.

To help lift the veil over Goodman’s eyes, let me interpret the quote: Don’t look to the Administration to cure your ills and problems. Reduce government. Get government off our backs. We’re not a social welfare state; cut back as many social programs as the voters will allow. Let the strong and the powerful dominate.

Barbara Bush may be sleeping with Ellen Goodman’s enemy and, perhaps, with the enemy of the middle and lower class, but she’s surely not sleeping with her enemy.

Now, Ms. Goodman, do you get it?

JAKE ANGELIN, Los Angeles