Readers React: With candidates like these, it’s no wonder voters are angry

To the editor: Doyle McManus states that Americans are angry at politicians because they fail to solve basic problems. He doesn’t say the real reason people believe this. (“Trump and Sanders are the logical result of government that doesn’t deliver,” Opinion, Feb. 14)

There was a time when politicians comprised to enact legislation for the public good. Now any attempt to compromise to solve a problem endangers the politician to a primary challenge by party ideologues.

So now politicians act only to get re-elected. The money and power they also seek follow. Good policy and the public interest are not even on their radar screens.

Watching the most recent presidential primary debates made me shudder. We are a country of more than 300 million people, one with many bright, talented potential leaders. So why do the remaining eight candidates for president consist of six political dregs, a bloviating egomaniac and a decent but otherwise unqualified gentleman?

No wonder voters are angry.

Peter R. Pancione, Thousand Oaks

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To the editor: As quoted by McManus, “A CBS News poll in 2014 found that only 23% of Americans expected their children’s lives to be better than their own-and that was in a year when the economy was improving.”

If “lives being better” means having as much or more money than their parents, then the poll’s findings may very well be true. But if it “lives being better” means having a better quality of life, the results might look quite different.

From what I can tell from my 26-year-old daughter and her friends, quality of life for them seems to be doing what they love (even if it means making less money), spending time with loved ones, enjoying nature and the simple things in life and having enough time for reflection and solitude. If they have enough money for the necessities of life and perhaps a little extra, they seem to be grateful and content.

Perhaps acquiring more possessions is becoming less important to younger people, requiring us “older people” to reevaluate our antiquated beliefs about what it means to have a good life.

Rachelle Adler, Marina del Rey

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