European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 15, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Voters economic discontent needs solutions Anthony Lewis Newt Gingrich was Brilliant at playing to the resentment of americans. Brilliant and Nasty. But those of us who disliked his tactics must not let that shut our eyes to the fact that the resentment is there. It is resentment of what Many americans see As an arrogant ruling class out of touch with their concerns. What Are the reasons for the extraordinary anger directed at incumbent democrats right across the country i believe it is first of All a matter of economics. There is a Puzzle Here. Unemployment is Down the deficit falling the National economic figures robust. Yet in exit polls six out of 10 voters agreed that the Economy was a in bad  Why the discontent figures Are deceptive for one thing. Average real per capita income has been essentially stagnant for  a a average is itself a distorting concept. The richest 20 percent of americans have been growing rapidly Richer. Their incomes bring up the average figure but those in the Middle and below Are losing ground. Most american families depend on two incomes. They Are working Nard or but they feel they Are hardly holding their own. They Don t know How they Are going to Send their children to College or now those children will find jobs that will put them in the Middle class a or keep them there. Expectations for ones children May be the key Factor in political discontent. America is the land of expectations. From the beginning immigrants and native born alike most americans have expected their children to do better than themselves. ,. The Assumption that the family Slot would improve was heightened during the extraordinary . Economic growth of the decades after world War ii. In those years America became a country of Middle class homeowners. And then a suddenly it seemed a the Boom came to an end. There was an illusory revival during the Reagan years based on deficit financing. Now for Many people expectations Are embittered. To see Public resentment in these terms is to understand its seriousness. For the truth is that the economic discontent will not be easily dispelled. The kind of improvement people want is hard to achieve in the real world of the 1990s. Take the a a contract that Gingrich produced for Republican House candidates to sign. It Calls for higher defense spending and tax cuts totalling $200 billion Over the next five years. It also talks of a balanced budget constitutional amendment. But its Hope of a balanced budget in fact rests on the reaganomics notion that lower taxes will produce higher Revenue which proved to be a fantasy. So the Gingrich contract would in All likelihood pile More debt on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. So will the refusal thus far by both republicans and democrats to do anything about the growing Burden of entitlements. A. A. A. A a a a related part of the Public resentment expressed in these elections was dislike of a big  there is a certain irony in that. Gov eminent policy after All made possible the housing Boom and the growth of International Trade that fuelled the postwar economic Miracle. At the same time that people condemn big government they want government to do things on their behalf but it is True that the Federal government has grown too Large and far too intrusive in its regulations. Democrats and in particular president Clinton should Long ago have followed the example of supreme court Justice Louis Brandeis a progressive who believed in decentralization and Small institutions. Maybe republicans can do something on that score. But the Central economic dilemma demands political courage of a kind that we have not seen lately. It requires leaders to Tell voters that they cannot have benefits without paying the Cost and still expect a better life for their children. Economic growth requires investment. This country saves and invests much less than its competitors in the world Market. If we want our children to have More we must practice self denial a spending less and investing More both privately and publicly. A it is urgently necessary to address the causes of our economic discontent. If we do not resentment can easily fall prey to demagoguery a and to scapegoating that would tear our social fabric. C no Wyorst my Clinton got a rude Awakening but now what last tuesday they Are saying was a a Wake up Calls for president Clinton and the democratic party. No doubt. But a Call to Wake up and do what Clinton himself is saying he wants to be a More cooperative with the republicans who now control the National legislature. But if Lack of inter party cooperation was the problem Why did the voters favor the party of Dole Ana Gingrich ,. The pollsters Point out that this midterm election was the revenge of the White Guy two thirds of White men voted for republicans this time. But if women a White and Blacks tended to favor democrats Why Wasny to it a Wash and if it was an angry White Guy thing Why did some 30 percent of Black men in Maryland vote for the conservative Ellen Sauerbrey political analysts say the election was a rebuke to Clinton so new democrats for their failure to do anything really new a such As shrinking the government or cutting taxes. But the Federal deficit has shrunk under the Clinton administration and the Economy has shown significant improvement. Was the administration Given no credit for that do the voters really want a drastically shrunken government or is it Only that different factions Are unhappy with different elements of to repeat what should a chastened Clinton administration Wake up and do cooperate with the leaders of the Gopas rightward shift appease White males by jettisoning affirmative action and other efforts to boost the prospects of women and minorities abandon the Effort to Universal ize health care and heed Charles Murray Scall to end welfare quit the demo cratic party i done to know what lessons Clinton is supposed to gain from tuesdays results and it does no to make me feel particularly intelligent to discover that apparently in a the Only one who does no to know. The gun lobby knows done to Buck the National Rifle association or you la pay a As for instance Oklahoma a Dave Mccurdy paid. The Republican right knows reduce government Cut taxes and keep those Middle class entitlements coming. Mainstream democrats know enunciate an easily memorized set of moderate principles and stick with them. Dick Molpus knows. The Mississippi Secretary of state who has been the Leader of a Long term National Effort to increase voter participation says tuesdays returns were the culmination of a a trend that a been bubbling up for some time a frustration and discontent with a system people feel they done to have input into  the reason the democrats suffered the Brunt of that frustration says Molpus a prospective democratic candidate for governor of Mississippi is that they were seen As in control and therefore responsible. He thinks it la soon happen to the republicans now that  be in charge. A in Short Clinton has been Given a Wake up Call to William Raspberry do whatever it is we thought he should have been doing All along. Even his fiercest supporters would be hard dressed to give him much useful advice based on the lessons of tuesday. How could there be Clear Cut lessons in a series of elections that saw the voters elect one son of a rejected president Bush and reject the other son that saw two men of Power and uprightness Mario Cuomo and Tom Foley tossed ignominiously out of office and Chuck Robb a Chuck Robb a re elected that Defeated incumbent democrats almost without regard for How Well they had served their constituencies and replaced them with candidates whose primary characteristic was their innocence of political experience is this a rebuke from which a discerning president could learn useful lessons or just generalized disgust with government still i think Molpus is largely Correct when he describes angry and frustrated voters who a want their opinions heard and their values paid attention to who feel themselves out of the Loop outgunned and pushed aside by special  it can to have been reassuring when recent efforts to ameliorate that feeling of disconnection a lobby Reform and Campaign finance Reform for instance were shoved aside. The disgust with the system is easy enough to see. What is far murkier is what Clinton can do about it. My guess is not much. A c Washer Tullon Post