GOP Opposition to Clinton

Your correspondents who view Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) as an “obstructionist” with a stlerong determination to “demean the President and destroy his credibility” (letters, Sept. 2) fail to recognize that Dole, like other Republicans, may actually object to Clinton’s policies on ideological grounds, and not emotional grounds.

The President regularly complains that he is the most set-upon President in recent memory; he seems to have forgotten the halcyon days of his youth, chanting: “Hey, Hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?” During the tenures of Presidents Nixon and Reagan, many Democrats opposed not only those presidents’ initiatives, they opposed the men as well. How many liberals and liberal pundits satirized President Reagan; how many insulted his intelligence, his ideology, his policies? One need only recall Sen. Ted Kennedy’s scurrilous comments about Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork to expose the current liberal hypocrisy.

I do not send elected representatives to Congress to support a President simply because he is the President; I send them to protect and promote my interests, whether or not my interests are the same as the President’s. If Dole’s constituents continue to send him to the Hill, he is obviously representing their beliefs, which do not appear to match those of the White House. Liberals apparently believe that the GOP should simply roll over for Clinton and play the loyal lap-dog; they need only look back on their track record with Republican presidents to understand how the game truly is played.

RUSSELL A. BURGOS

Beverly Hills

I am a legal alien, no not from Mars, just another democratic, English-speaking nation called Australia. I am very confused about your political system. Let’s see, Americans elected a Democrat President and Democrat majorities in both the House and the Senate.

Why is it then, that the minority party can tell the majority party what to do? Is it because Sen. Dole wants to be the next President? Or just sour grapes over the fact that the majority of Americans want the Democrats to govern? I wonder if the various special interest groups have anything to do with it.

Call me ignorant if you like, but I just do not understand the American version of democratic government. Could someone please explain to me what is going on here!!!

MARK SHEARS

Los Angeles