How Low Can Our Political Culture Go?
Re “Gore Decides He Won’t Run for President,” Dec. 16: Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist, reveals his mean-spirited, low political culture in his response to Al Gore’s withdrawal from a presidential run in ‘04: “I thought it would be a fool’s errand, but he’s probably figured it out.” In times gone by, we might have had: “I’m sure Vice President Gore would have been an honorable and formidable adversary in ’04 and I’m also sure we haven’t seen the last of him on the political scene,” or something like that.
But that would have been in days past when literate public servants on opposite sides of the aisle revealed respect for one another as players in the tough work of running this country and growing our democratic form of government, at least, I suppose, in public utterances. Not now.
Rita Sokolow
Los Angeles
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I admire Gore for his intelligence. A person would have to be an idiot to try to straighten out the mess made of two more years of Bush management.
Robert J. Heimstra
Mission Viejo
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