Democrats and GOP Need to Change Their Ways

Re “Democrats Aren’t Giving Bush a Break This Term,” Feb. 11: The November election showed that Americans prefer a leader, despite that leader’s failures and poor policies. As much as I disagree with nearly everything that President Bush stands for, he has turned out to be much more of a leader than a follower.

The Democratic Party needs to be more than an assertive “party of no” if it wants to win back the White House or a congressional majority. The Democratic Party needs to show it can lead.

In the last election, Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry demonstrated a lack of leadership in his own campaign. He was either slow or reluctant to call Republicans on the many falsehoods raised against him, and he was afraid to push against the painful policies of the Bush administration. Voters saw Kerry position himself as close to the center as he could get without taking a firm position on anything.

Howard Dean needs to sharpen the differences between the parties through innovation and communication, rather than just saying no to every Republican proposal.

Howard Schlossberg

Woodland Hills

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Although Jonathan Chait (“The Baddest Man in D.C.,” Commentary, Feb. 11) has his facts straight regarding the GOP’s over-the-top attacks on Harry Reid and Tom Daschle, his conclusion, that “this kind of transparent propaganda is, sadly, a normal function of political parties,” does not ring true.

Rarely has such constant partisan invective been directed at a leader in either house of Congress. Probably one would have to return to the period before the Civil War to find senators subjected to the unjustified rudeness Democratic leaders have had to endure. Moreover, the Republicans have targeted Daschle and then Reid for no apparent reason other than that each has been Senate minority leader.

Tony Gerard

Silver City, N.M.

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Bush is a big fan of democracy in other parts of the world but seems to have little regard for the democratic two-party system here. The tactics of the Republican Party in viciously smearing Democratic politicians they have “targeted” is a vile practice and totally undermines our electoral system. From Georgia to North Dakota to Nevada, just to name a few, Bush seems intent on having only his kind of people -- white, wealthy evangelicals -- seated in Congress.

What a hypocrite he shows himself to be as he arrogantly attempts to sell our government as a model, when in fact he does all he can to destroy the democratic two-party system set down by our forefathers.

Fran Gale

Laguna Niguel