Reconnecting with voters.

• Author: Fossett, Carroll A.
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

For Democrats to reconnect with disaffected middle-class and lower-income voters ("Breaking the Rich-Poor Alliance," by Ruth Conniff, August issue), the message must be straightforward. It goes something like this:

Since around 1980, the Republicans have been pushing the notion that government is the problem. But that idea is at odds with history, because government has always been part of the solution. Think internal security, law enforcement, food safety, fair labor laws, financial regulation, Medicare, and Social Security, and so on. (I'm a big fan of the National Park Service.)

What we need now is not smaller and smaller...