To the editor:

We seem to have settled on the alternatives for our next leader. Change is in the air! We are excited! Wait a minute! In this entire milieu, is there anyone who cares about the middle class – the group to which most of us belong? One of our would-be leaders would continue the policies that have led to one of the richest men in the world paying lower taxes than one of his middle class secretaries. The other wants to spend seemingly zillions of dollars on the poor while not raising taxes on the middle class. Really, then who do you think will pay that bill – the rich – really? Look in the mirror!

How about some policies that focus on the middle – those who are gainfully employed, who bear the ever-increasing tax load, who are experiencing slow wage growth, who are threatened with job exportation and who are enduring rapid cost-of-living escalation. Is there not an advocate for us?

How about a more equitable (not more voracious) tax system? How about elimination of fraud and abuse in business activities? How about a responsible energy program that does not devastate us while moving to greener solutions? How about better protection for workers at the expense of the mega-corporations – or for that matter greedy small business owners?

We built the biggest and most comfortable middle class in the world! Are we now to dismantle it in a flurry of five-second sound bites and contrived factional rivalry?

George Lippencott,
Lawrence