Drawing lines ends cooperation

To the editor:

America is in a funk. Jimmy Carter said, "America is experiencing malaise." Ronald Reagan countered, "You're destroying the American dream." So we ushered in an era of defining ourselves as conservative or liberal. We don't know exactly what that means. We simply know who is and who isn't. We embarked on the greatest spending binge in history and the greatest public and private indebtedness in human history.

We beefed up Social Security deductions to accumulate a humongous trust fund which became good pickings for continued overspending. Ross Perot abruptly called our attention to this and rattled our cage a little bit to bring us Bill Clinton, who facilitated some budget discretion.

However, we went on with our complacent, creature-gratification lifestyle while ignoring the split in our nation's consciousness. We can't decide whether we want to be conservative by taking government out of our lives -- as Reagan would have it -- or liberal -- as John Kerry, John Kennedy and Clinton are defined. This division has made a major contribution to the lack of bipartisan congeniality that John McCain has decried.

We are still stuck. George Bush's stock drops, but Kerry's stock doesn't gain commensurately. When will we get out of this gridlock? It's anybody's guess.

GILBERT DEGENHARDT

Cape Girardeau