Big Win for Bush in County Goes Against Reason

In response to Hugh Hewitt’s Aug. 30 article: Eight reasons why Orange County voters will help Clinton win the presidency:

1. The 83,900 unemployed in Orange County know they need a change in government. Clinton’s economic program will match Germany’s and Japan’s successful combination of private industry, labor and governmental cooperation and will stimulate economic growth through tax incentives, job training, repairing and rebuilding roads and bridges, which will provide jobs, jobs, jobs.

2. Orange County voters continue to march en masse to protect our environment. They will vote for Clinton and Gore because the new covenant includes protection of California’s coastline from offshore oil drilling. Also included is increased support for new-technology research which will generate jobs and result in cleaner environment and a healthier citizenry.

3. An Aug. 27 poll shows that 68.9% of Orange County voters support the Democratic platform which supports a woman’s right to reproductive choice.

4. The 400,000 health-care-deprived in Orange County, the out-of-sight and still-rising costs of health care to the consumer and to business and the interminably demanding paperwork contrasts sharply with Clinton’s plan to reduce provider and administrative costs and provide access to health care to everyone.

5. Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al and Tipper Gore have earned the trust of families because of their longtime support of quality child-care provisions for families when both parents must work and for those seeking education and training to provide improved family income. They believe employers should provide unpaid leave for their employees when faced with family emergencies.

6. The new covenant includes improved education opportunities for all, starting with full funding for Head Start, a domestic GI bill to allow everyone to borrow for a college education, to be repaid by devoting two years of national community service, or small monthly payments and a national apprenticeship program that trains our youth for high-wage employment opportunities. Additionally, Clinton insists upon accountability from students, parents and teachers, requiring students to remain in school or forfeit their driver’s licenses, requiring competency tests for teachers, enacting teacher pay raises and requiring parents to attend parent-teacher conferences.

7. The Clinton/Gore new covenant will enforce corporate responsibility as well as individual responsibility. Corporations which pay their chief executive officer 100 times as much as the average worker, companies which transfer jobs abroad and cut the security of working people in the United States will get no special treatment by the Treasury or receive tax breaks. Individuals receiving government help through retaining and supporting payments will be required to work as soon as jobs are available.

8. The local parties: Democratic stalwarts and newly recruited volunteers are staffing six unified Democratic offices and waging aggressive campaigns throughout Orange County. The West Orange County volunteers registered 400 new Democrats last weekend. Between July 23 and Aug. 9, Democratic registration increased by 4,355. Republican registration increased 1,745. So much for Hugh Hewitt’s claim about the Democratic Party’s demise in Orange County.

SALLY J. ALEXANDER, Huntington Beach. Sally J. Alexander is Orange County regional director of the California Democratic Party and a member of the Orange County Clinton Steering Committee.