Letter: Working people need Democrats to regain power

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002 | 9:16 a.m.

Monday morning quarterbacks are attributing Democratic losses to failure of the party to come up with a coherent alternative to the conservative Republican Party's befuddled agenda.

There is some truth to that, but after witnessing how Rep. Shelley Berkley and, especially, Dario Herrera were plastered with negative TV ads and phone calls, I would say it was more a case of the conservatives having a skilled propaganda machine with almost unlimited funds and few scruples.

I doubt if there is any way the Democrats are going to be able to match the Republican Party in fund-raising. The richest corporations and individuals in the country paid for the election of conservatives and will keep on doing so. Corporate executives, by moving factories to developing countries, have defused the power of labor unions to offset the power of the industrial barons. Working people need Democratic help.

Democrats should be hammering away at these facts. The public needs to understand that tax savings of the rich aren't spent in the U.S. to employ more people and it is money in pockets of the masses that turns economies around.

Small business owners need to know their interests are not the same as those of big corporations either. Their prosperity depends on great numbers of people buying their goods and services. Government "of the people, by the people, for the people" has become "of the people, by the rich, for the rich."

The pundits are right in saying the Democratic Party is sorely in need of some charismatic spokesmen and women to make these things clear to everyone. They need to explain that Bush's Cabinet can't cure a miserable present with promises of a brilliant future. With outstanding leaders, perhaps the Democrats could offset this radical right-wing conservative party's riches.

PAUL GWIN