Common sense for Democrats

To the editor:

Not since the days of Herbert Hoover has an administration been so out of touch with its people. With gas prices approaching $3 a gallon, Americans stripped of health-care coverage, illegal aliens streaming across our borders and a bungled war overseas, this administration wastes time demonizing evolution and family planning.

Many independents who voted Republican in the last two elections are fed up with this administration and the right-wing propaganda machine propping it up. With the Republican Party hopelessly in the grip of fundamentalist extremists and the moderate majority like the boll weevil "just looking for a home," Democrats are at an important crossroads. Unfortunately, many Democrats are busy pandering to their own radical element.

The conspiracy theories and other nonsense of the Michael Moore crowd are no more appealing to moderates than is the hate and venom of the Limbaugh legions. To quote a famous demagogue, "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the two of them."

Democrats must end their flirtation with the Hollywood peanut gallery and get back in touch with candidates possessing the common sense of Truman and compassionate wisdom of Roosevelt. Independent voters are up for grabs. To win the moderate majority and avoid going the way of the Whigs, Democrats must promote common sense candidates with a clear platform and real solutions rather than re-fighting the election of 2000 and trying to out-hate and out-propagandize a fundamentalist administration already discredited by its own dismal failures.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson