The best and worst of editorializing

Re “ ‘A more perfect union,’ ” editorial, Dec. 10

Kudos for your excellent editorial, the first in your series on “American Values and the Next President.”

With the campaigns swirling around us, characterized as they are by pandering, obfuscating, attacking and outright lying, it was refreshing to read your thoughtful piece on the critical matter of whom we elect to the presidency.

I admit to reading and rereading your description of the kind of person who can move us forward in perfecting our union while upholding its values.

You wrote: “We seek leaders with talent, experience and wisdom.” How far from that description of the ideal candidate is the leader the country elected (by whatever means) in 2000 and reelected in 2004?

After seven years of the Bush administration, marked as it has been by preemptive war, extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo Bay, tax cuts for the wealthiest, unauthorized surveillance of the citizenry, the Katrina disaster and its aftermath, the intrusion of religious principles into governance and matters of science, mountains of national debt, a weakening of the economy and America’s image in the eyes of the world, the need for your sober insights and guidance could not be greater.

Rachel Galperin

Encino

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This piece reflects almost everything that can go wrong with editorial writing. Facts are missing, but textbook platitudes abound.

Statements such as “Every election is an exercise in perfecting our union” may sound good in a 10th-grade history book, but they don’t help citizens select a president.

Regardless of one’s opinion on the immigration debate, I can’t believe the best policy choice is to dismiss cultural concerns with a single sentence that makes it seem immigration has no negative consequences.

With an editorial series that drips in its worldliness, I expect more.

Jordan Snedcof

Pasadena

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The Times writes a perfect editorial. It highlights the continuing challenge to pursue the “perfect union” with examinations of our basic American principles.

Generations in the past cast out “slavery, race discrimination and subordination of women,” as we must now reverse the erosion of our civil rights as a price for physical security. Did we forget Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!” or the slogan of the Cold War, “Better dead than Red!”?

The underlying American principle that should be our guide is the protection and preservation of our Constitution. Each president swears to it at his inauguration; we the people should swear to it every day.

Vincent De Vita

Northridge

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I think this American values series is a great idea, and I look forward to more editorials in the future.

However, the first installment misses something very crucial. There is not one mention of Native Americans.

If your goal is to truly help us “search our conscience” and not just write another sanctimonious piece to pat ourselves on the back, then the plight of Native Americans must be included.

If they are not, the series is tantamount to a shrink trying to help a patient but omitting the patient’s abusive childhood.

Jamie Lennon Rowland

Downey