LETTERS: GOP BLOCKS OPPOSITION AND CATERS TO BUSINESS

To the editor:

I would like to respond to state Sen. Peter Kinder's April 19 column in which he so very poetically said, "A Freedom Tide promising to shrink government, lower taxes and make liberals forever irrelevant crashed onto American shores on Nov. 8, 1994."

I think Kinder is getting overly excited about a mere spike on the electroencephalogram of U.S. political history. The last time the Republican Party controlled both houses of Congress was in the mid-1950s. The last time it controlled even one house, the Senate, was in the early 1980s for a two-year period, which is coincidentally the minimum amount of time it takes the electorate to determine that a mistake has been made and to correct it. It remains to be seen whether the obnoxious crew who now hold power will be able to hold on to it.

I am going to confine my remarks the changes they have brought to the U.S. House, because the Senate, owing to its crippling rules, doesn't pose as much of a threat to democracy as the House. As to whether or not this nouveau regime represents a tide of freedom, I would like to propound a couple of theses.

First, as bad as they say the suppression of opposing views in congressional deliberations was when the Democrats were in power, it is far, far worse under the Republicans.

Second, since the Republicans have assumed power, I have not seen -- and I regularly watch C-SPAN's coverage of House proceedings -- an instance in a policy conflict between business and consumers, between business and environmentalists or between business and labor in which the Republicans did not come down vigorously on the business side of the controversy.

This combination of the blanket suppression of opposing views and a situation in which business interests are firmly in the saddle reminds me of a certain outdated European method of governance. Senator Kinder, be proud of what your party espouses and don't be ashamed of the word which describes it. The word is fascism. We may not yet be at the stage of jackboots and concentration camps, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Republicans should not count of my vote this year.

DONN S. MILLER

Tamms, Ill.