Clinton and Dole

Your article “Liberals Fear Further Loss of Political Clout” (July 6), I fear, misses a main point in the situation facing us today.

As a Great Depression-era “liberal,” I have concluded that the principal political roadblock standing in the way of implementation of President Clinton’s agenda for a better America--the ideas which earned him the election over Bush--is Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), his fellow Republicans and their ultraconservative ally, the American Conservative Union. Dole, the master of political rhetoric, is crying out to retake the White House.

For example, I--a lifelong Democrat who cast my first vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932--recently received a letter from Dole soliciting funds for the ACU--his union--to fight the “liberals.” Believe it or not, he is asking Americans targeted to get his message: “Think about it. Liberals now control the White House, Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the media, Hollywood and academia.”

What Americans should fear at the moment is the political clout of Dole. I am confident that the majority of voters will reject the senator’s political rhetoric and give President Clinton a vote of confidence in the next election.

JACK L. RUGH

San Gabriel

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Please tell me it isn’t true! I didn’t actually see the dreaded “trickle down” phrase in the article about liberals! Perhaps the “new” liberals are finally realizing that socialism has never worked (it doesn’t take a Berlin Wall to fall on their heads) and that “trickle down” is just another phrase for good old-fashioned American capitalism.

PAT STADLER

Manhattan Beach