LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: MAYBE VOTERS LIKE GOVERNMENT TO GIVE BENEFITS

To the editor:

Now that Al Gore has evened the poll score and George Bush, by his own admission, is on the defensive, what happened? After listening to the talking heads and hearing the extensive media discussion of what has taken place and what it portends for the November election, I think of something that happened almost 20 years ago.

Conservative columnist George Will was addressing a group at a business forum in St. Louis. He asserted that Americans will be forced to "grow up" in the coming time. He said, according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, that "the American people have a voracious appetite for government services but an aversion to wanting to pay for them. ... They talk a much more conservative game than they are willing to play. The middle class is the biggest beneficiary of big government and is determined to stay that way."

Maybe Gore is on to something.

GILBERT DEGENHARDT

Cape Girardeau