My jaw hangs open:

It's sad to read such rhetoric as submitted by Coleen DeGroff ("End This Regime," Jan. 7 letters) calling President Bush's administration "despotic." America is a democracy. President Bush serves because he was duly elected in 2000 and 2004. He was elected by a majority of Americans, and he was elected for good reason.

Like any administration, there have been mistakes, oversights and errors. But have we lost another World Trade Center, something the previous administration could have prevented? Have we suffered from other outrageous terrorist attacks as our allies have? Have we witnessed this president on national television denying he seduced a young female intern, only to learn later that he lied? Has the current administration pedaled its influence to foreign powers, like the Chinese? No, on all counts, and America is better off today than it was just six years ago.

So the president's political opponents are reduced to making unsubstantiated claims of abuse and then use their own claims to level broad accusations of cultural corruption. They engage in such tactics for political gain even knowing it weakens our national security. That's what's despotic, and even more importantly, it's dangerous.

Americans need to get the facts and think for themselves instead of blindly repeating political sound bites and quoting self-serving politicos. That's democracy.


CHARLES H. STEVERS
Venetia

How do you respond to such people? "Time for Wapner"?


.