LETTERS: GOP LIKE OLD MOVIE PLOT

To the editor:

The grandiose delusion of the House Republicans of the 104th Congress -- that the mere fact of their having attained majority status, for once in a blue moon, entitles them to charge around like a bull in a china shop destroying the social safety net built since the time of FDR, which has enabled the U.S. working class to survive capitalism -- reminds me of a movie plot, that of Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train."

In that flick, two men (Farley Granger and Robert Walker) meet on a train and converse. Granger, a professional tennis player, is seeking a divorce from his round-heeled wife, who won't give him one. Walker, a playboy, greatly desires the death of his well-heeled father, who won't die. After an exchange of social pleasantries and small talk, Walker alludes to their problems and finally gets around to proposing that each of them murder the fly in the other's ointment. Granger is horrified by Walker's proposal and immediately realizes that Walker is a couple of cans shy of a six-pack, but he continues to humor him and remain civil.

Walker, completely misinterpreting Granger's civility as a commitment to carry through what Walker views as an iron-clad contract, goes ahead and murders Granger's wife. Granger is stupified at Walker's leap to this conclusion.

Just like Walker, the House Republicans seem to think that the U.S. electorate's willingness to give them a crack at governance represents a blanket endorsement of their social Darwinism, as codified ini the so-called Contract With America. I can't wait for November, when I suspect that U.S. voters will say goodbye to these hothanded Raw Deal zealots who are trying to tear down the same New Deal which saved many of their own parents and grandparents.

DONN S. MILLER

Tamms, Ill.