GOP Mandate and the Democrats

Alexander Cockburn’s Column Left (“What GOP ‘Mandate’? It’s a Myth,” Nov. 17) is another example of the shocking state of denial in which many Democrats find themselves today.

Since the elections, I have heard only one politician state the truth about the recent Republican victories. In his speech on Nov. 11 before a group of financial leaders, Rep. Newt Gingrich stated that he fully expects that Americans will vote Republicans out of office in the next election if they do not succeed in making progress in overhauling the government.

Americans voted out the Democrats and voted in the Republicans because there was no other plausible option. All this talk about left, right, centrist and moderate has no meaning any longer in the minds of Americans. We simply want an end to the rhetoric and partisan politics and want to find people who will start making the changes necessary to get us back on track.

I am a liberal Democrat who voted for his first Republican in the recent elections. I will continue to vote for a person, not a party, from now on. If my candidate fails to perform, I will exercise my own form of terms limits and will continue to do so until we find real leaders.

STEVE SMITH, Costa Mesa

*

Cockburn uses the percentage of eligible voters to make his point instead of the percentage of those who voted. Cockburn is just as irrelevant as those who didn’t vote.

WARREN RAABE, Downey

*

Here it comes, America! Now that the ink’s dried on our “Contract With the Republicans,” the sales force, Gingrich, Sen. Bob Dole, et al. are flipping to the last page and pointing out the fine print. (“Republicans Temper Talk of Changes,” Nov. 14).

Social Security reform? Sen. Phil Gramm claims we’ll “not tamper with the government’s costliest program.” Why not? It’s the most expensive! Farm subsidy reform? Gingrich tells us “agricultural subsidies are politically out of reach” and blames European subsidies. C’mon, Newt. They’re politically out of reach because Dole’s from Kansas. Assault weapons? The GOP says drop the ban. Perhaps they want us all adequately armed when their value-added tax leads to economic collapse and we’re hunkered down behind the barricades.

President Clinton’s demise has been pegged to promising one thing but proposing another. The Republicans haven’t rolled their new model into the showroom, and already I smell bait and switch.

FRANK DUNGAN, Los Angeles

*

For a change, reading The Times (Nov. 13) was actually fun again. Fun to read of the horror that swept the ranks of American liberals Nov. 8. How dare the American people attempt to rescue their country from 60-odd years of the abuses and foolishness of the liberal Establishment!

The horror was best expressed by Robert Scheer’s hysterical inanities (Commentary) and Susan Estrich’s stunned-ox incomprehension (Opinion). America’s liberals have become the latter-day Bourbons, and as Talleyrand said of the original Bourbons, “They have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.”

R. A. MOORE, Palos Verdes Estates

*

The message is clear: The party with the stronger social agenda loses. The Democrats should quit talking about television violence, gun control and midnight basketball. The Republicans should quit talking about abortion, prayer in schools and family values.

THOMAS A. BUTTERWORTH, Newport Beach