THE PUBLIC MIND: VOTERS ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH ANY CANDIDATES, ANY PROGRAMS

To the Editor:

Toward the end of the '70s and beginning of the '80s, a word that was being passed around by speakers and writers was malaise. Mal (ill) aise (ease). President Carter felt malaise and was sensitive to its pervasion among the American people. When he expressed this publicly, citing our need to be considerate of our limitations as well as our possibilities, Ronald Reagan flippantly passed this off as "destroying the American dream."

After a decade of good feeling and the greatest spending binge of all time, America is again feeling malaise. President Bush became a foot-soldier to what he originally called "voodoo economics" and is now suffering from the fall-out of the excesses of the '80s with its Milkens, S&Ls, defense industry indiscretions, and so on (the mothers of all welfare programs). Voters are now in a quandary. With all the rhetoric and promises of all the presidential candidates, they are still not satisfied with any of them or of their "programs."

Maybe the problem is as Walt Kelly's Pogo says, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Here we are in the '90s. The federal government is still taking in only 80 cents for every $1 it spends. Are we still looking for "no new taxes," "tax reductions," "don't cut my program," "1000 points of light," "a shining city on a hill," "Camelot," a "Great Society," the "New Frontier" ... all this without pain, without struggle, no civic commitment, no responsibility to each other ... bashing the government when we're doing well ... wanting its help when things go badly?

Are we ready to concede that two plus two is still four, after trying for so long to make two plus two equal five? Are we ready to listen to reality? Are we ready for a candidate for public office who tells it like (we say) we want to hear it? Will we even vote for such a candidate? Can such a candidate even be able to raise campaign funds?

Listen up ... (especially Christians, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, Liberals, doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers) to what your God and mine has to say about our role in society: Luke 12:48, "....to whom much has been given, of him shall be much required." Perhaps, 'nuf said.

... for a while, anyway.

Gil Degenhardt

Cape Girardeau