Like politicians, readers divided over election

by Seattle Times staff

You thought the pundits and politicians couldn't find much common ground about what the stunning GOP showing at the polls really means.

Try our readers.

In offering their final thoughts to our Front Page Forum on an election that left the Republicans in control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, the judgment of those who responded were as bitterly divisive as one of the most bitterly divisive campaign seasons in recent memory.

John Hushagen e-mailed us his opinion that the election results were a "debacle" and that the Republicans' "Contract with America" threatens programs for the poor.

But many others were cheered by what they consider a political rebirth.

Ken Kromann of Mukilteo insisted the message to Clinton and Congress was clear: "Wrong way." Don't raise our taxes to make government bigger, don't tear down our traditional principles. "Leave us alone to take care of ourselves," he wrote.

The Front Porch Forum is a joint reporting project begun last May among The Seattle Times, local National Public Radio stations KPLU-FM and KUOW-FM, and the Florida-based Poynter Institute for Media Studies with the aim of bringing average citizens back into the political dialogue.

Here are some post-election responses by readers:

For the first time in my life I voted a straight Republican ticket. The nationwide results are better than I could have possibly hoped. Our national and state government is broken and has ceased to work for the grand majority of Americans. The Republican party has two years to start making government smaller, more responsible and less involved in Americans' lives (a middle-class tax cut would be frosting on the cake) or the same may happen to them. The "Contract With America" is a good start.

The acrimonious, hate-filled and spiteful post-election interviews of Kreidler, Unsoeld and other losing Democrats as well as the physical assault on an elderly Tate supporter (as he waved a campaign sign on the side of the road) show me that the liberal Democrats have truly grown morally bankrupt.

Additionally, Governor Lowry's and Mr. Clinton's press conferences in the days after this "revolution" have shown that they really don't understand what has happened. "They just don't get it."

This further reinforces my belief that they are truly out of touch with the heartbeat of the American people. -- Steve Prestek, Seattle

The vote had two parts. To Clinton and Congress, the nation said: "Wrong way. Don't socialize 15 percent of the economy and don't take more of our money to make government bigger. Don't continue to tear down those principles upon which our country was founded. Leave us alone to take care of ourselves."

Foley personified the arrogance and unethical abuse of power that 40 years of one-party rule have created. McDermott and Dicks survived rather handily, so the tidal-wave theory can't be used to rationalize Foley's loss. He just had to go. -- Ken Kromann, Mukilteo

The Democrats were the plant eaters - good hearted, but heavy and slow moving. The T-Rex and evil raptors had to be Republicans - so vicious, aggressive and terrifying that they eventually attacked each other. Will the two parties also face extinction? -- Georgi Krom, Seattle

This group would have vehemently opposed the New Deal with its Social Security Administration, the WPA, CCC program and unemployment insurance. This group would have voted down the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s, and blasted Medicare and Head Start before they ever reached the floor for a vote. Indeed, every major piece of progressive legislation passed in the past 40 years would not exist!

The Republicans call for a "Contract with America" and will begin looking to make major spending cuts all over the place.

But who do we read are first on their list? Welfare recipients! Are these "leaders" aware that the vast majority of welfare recipients are dependent children under age 12? How do we tell the 4-year-old child in a welfare-supported household that you have only two more years to be poor and then you all are on your own? Are these "leaders" willing to realize and deal with the fact that the Pentagon continues to buy $800 claw hammers? That's more than some welfare families of four receive in a month in many states.

On the local level, at this hour the Seattle school-bond measure is nearing defeat. Apparently better than 40 percent of those voting, including the wealthy elderly who left town for their winter homes and who aren't willing to give something back to the system that may have educated them and their children, don't care that the schools are falling apart, and won't get better without major rehabilitation and rebuilding.

I own a $200,000 home. The amount of extra tax I would pay per year is equal to the cost of taking a family of four to a matinee movie once a month and doing without popcorn and drinks.

I am saddened by the direction of our nation and the attitude of the citizens of Seattle. This was truly a mean-spirited election that I hope I never see again. John Hushagen, Seattle

I recommend the following for victors of vicious campaigns (read "everyone heading for Congress and everyone there now").

10 POINT RECOVERY PROGRAM:
1) I swear to say 20 times a day "It's the system, not the people." I will think no nasty thoughts about Democrats or Republicans, or anyone in Congress.
2) I promise to vastly improve the system by drafting a bill that all future bills be no more than five pages long (single-spaced, pica type, 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper, 1-inch margins, no microfiche).
3) I promise to pay no attention to my enraged campaign backers, who hoped I could slip some pork their way in all those big bills going through Congress. I will explain that the money we all save will more than compensate their loss.
4) I promise to work with the brain of a Republican and the lithe heart of a Democrat.
5) I swear to fight like crazy to pass a five-page health-care bill that offers every citizen a $100,000 health-care "kitty," which they can spend any way they like. Every citizen must, however, pay into this kitty according to their income over their lifetime, and they may pass on unused proceeds to heirs at their death.
6) I promise to seek out legislators whose views differ from mine, and cultivate trust.
7) I promise to insist to the media that those whose views differ from mine will get a full hearing so that the public can judge alternative solutions to issues.
8) I swear that I will work to improve the lot of all my constituents, from businesspeople struggling under ridiculous amounts of red tape, to the poor who struggle with roaches.
9) I promise to pass a five-page campaign reform act, which will raise congressional pay to $200,000 a year, so that I and my fellow congresspeople can comfortably maintain two households without needing to be wealthy or have backers to whom we are beholden. I swear that the reform act will allow a campaign kitty of no more than $25,000 per congressional candidate.
10) I swear that when I run for a second term, I will not call competitors opponents, but colleagues; that I will discuss ideas only, refusing to impute evil motives to anyone. -- Connie Missimer, Seattle

It's as if they're choosing to retreat to a fantasyland, where there IS a free lunch. Balance the budget, increase spending on the military, AND cut taxes! Shades of the '80s!

Those policies presented to us the magnificent gift of an addition of $3,000,000,000,000 to the national debt. (Somebody may be able to sell me snake oil ONE time, but heaven help him if he later comes around and tries to sell me a refill!)

It's also disheartening to realize that any meaningful health reform is down the drain. Many Republican candidates declared that there's nothing wrong with our health-care system, despite the fact that we pay twice as much for health care (without universal coverage) as the other industrialized nations.

It's disheartening to see the prospect of billions of tax dollars being spent to build more prisons, and at most, a paltry amount being directed at the root causes of crime. (The Republicans apparently hold no truck with the adage that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.")

It's also disheartening to see that the marketing of hate, bigotry and divisiveness pays big dividends at the ballot box. -- R. Wesley Aman, Kent

A sleeping giant has awoken and been heard.

Thanks to talk radio which enabled us to hear people with the same beliefs. -- Derek P. Wood, Seattle

Hopefully, the GOP will somewhere find the inspiration to extend its concern beyond corporate America to do a little elbow-rubbing with constituents instead of lobbyists.

Hopefully, money that could have gone to a little old widow eking by on Social Security will not be squandered on some ridiculous military "perk."

Hopefully, when the "entitlement" cuts begin, the first to go will be COLAs on such things as Tom Foley's $120,000 annual retirement check.

Hopefully, the NRA's waning power will not be restored.

Hopefully, the GOP will not act like Newt Gingrich sounds. Tom Camfield, Port Townsend

All I can say is after spending 20 years in the military - 15 of those years overseas (thank God, I missed the Reagan years) - we basically shot ourselves in the foot.

Well guys, this is Day One of Contract "On" America, and we will be counting. I only hope that Americans can survive this. -- Cheryl Lee, Seattle

It's time that we get back to conservative values where we follow rules and respect each other. And I think this is great.

I think we're going to get back on track again. Thanks! -- Stephen Jochmann, Redmond

To the losers: Thanks for the time, and, though misguided in my conservative view, effort.

To the winners, may you have the wisdom to:

1) Reduce government size, cost and power over our lives;
2) Unleash the American free-enterprise system while maintaining adequate safeguards against those who are greedy;
3) Provide opportunity for education and fulfillment for the industrious;
4) Make us a nation of citizens supportive of family structure and be united, not hyphenated sub-cultures;
5) Encourage slow or no growth in the population, while continuing care and respect for our environment;
6) Stop rising medical costs and extend care to all willing to contribute to it. -- Don Keltz, Bellevue