Letters

The American people have spoken, and they want President Bush, a man of moral and ethical integrity, to continue to lead them [Nov. 15]. Compassionate conservatives clearly won the day. In spite of two years of constant partisan attacks on the President, the electorate wasn't fooled. They know when they see a strong leader. The American people gave the President more Republicans in Congress and the largest popular vote any President has received, which amounts to a governing mandate that will create a stronger U.S.--at home and abroad.

WILLIS PAPILLION

Silverdale, Wash.

I have always been proud to be an American. But after seeing this nation choose Bush for another four years despite all he has done to endanger our health, prosperity and reputation, I am embarrassed and frightened to be an American.

VIRGINIA PASQUARELLI

Roswell, Ga.

Thank God our President was re-lected. I worked very hard on his campaign and was proud to be part of his team. This country truly needs a man of faith who stands by his promises.

LINDA POSTEL

West Palm Beach, Fla.

The Republicans have managed to tap into and hijack some mainstream parts of the American ethos and claim them as their own. While some have called the election proof that the American people can be trusted in their decisions, I recall James Madison's words from the Federalist papers, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."

COLONEL KEES RIETSEMA, U.S.A.F. (RET.)

Cave Creek, Ariz.

Iny my suburban area of Ohio, what we liked was Bush's determination to take action to protect the U.S. from enemies who are certainly not ambivalent in their hatred of us. Kerry's insistence that he had plans for everything, even though he couldn't explain any of them, just seemed like too much high-and-mighty wind without substance. Most people chose Bush's clearly expressed agenda instead of taking a chance on a Senator with a rather weak track record.

AMY T. BIDWELL

Plain City, Ohio

I now believe that Bush is a brilliant man. He persuaded many of my fellow Ohioans to vote against themselves not just once but a second time as well.

ADAM MICHAEL ROSENBERG

Cincinnati, Ohio

Counting All the Moral Votes

In a remarkable display of naivete, a majority of Americans voted for Bush, thinking they were voting for moral values [Nov. 15]. They have instead elected a duplicitous group of war profiteers whose only interest is self-interest. The Republican juggernaut has seized control of all three branches of government. Religious conservatives will dictate how we live our lives. Toll the bells, my fellow citizens: democracy is dead in America.

FRANCINE PASETTI

Tampa, Fla.

I sorely wanted to vote for Kerry but voted for Bush because I could not, as a matter of conscience, vote for someone with Kerry's attitude toward abortion. I am not alone among silenced pro-life Democrats and other social conservatives who have gone unnoticed.

JIMMY QUACH

Cambridge, Mass.

Many voters failed to consider the morality of a pre-emptive military action that has resulted in the death of thousands of Iraqi civilians. It's wrong to label people as unpatriotic or lacking in traditional values because they are just as saddened by those foreign deaths as they are by the lives lost on 9/11 and American military casualties. The term morality and all that it connotes should not be cheapened into a political device.

JOHN MILLER

Baltimore, Md.

A lot of Americans who regularly attend church believe that gay marriage, abortion and stem-cell research are sins. Many others don't think those are really sins and don't go to church much but do believe that invading a country and causing thousands of deaths and incalculable misery to innocent people is a sin. I wonder whom God will forgive.

HARRIET ROBINSON

Doylestown, Pa.

Let's see if I have this straight. It's O.K. to lie about the reasons for invading another country but not O.K. for two men or two women to marry. It's O.K. to hand our children a budget deficit that will choke them but not O.K. to use stem cells to fight disease. It's O.K. to duck the real war on terrorism, jeopardize Social Security and take a pass on fixing the health-care system but not O.K. to believe in the separation of church and state. Would those be the famous "moral values"? Thanks, but no. You keep yours; I'll keep mine.

DENISE DUNNE-DEVANEY

Sekiu, Wash.

Dining with the Devil

Columnist Andrew Sullivan's "Let's Have a Truce" [Nov. 15] urged both parties to put the election behind them and work together. We have a President, however, who has alienated half of this country and most of the rest of the world by his irresponsible actions. Asking those who are sickened by Bush's past four years to declare a truce is like asking a Fundamentalist Christian to have lunch with the devil. It's not going to happen.

RICHARD MOBERG

Philadelphia

Sullivan tells us we should get over it and support Bush because in wartime we owe him a second chance. Excuse me? Why are we in wartime, and who put us there? As an American citizen, I owe Bush nothing.

LOLA FALSTAD

Seattle

Are we supposed to wave the flag and rally behind our President so that he can finish the job he had no business starting--launching some new wars against other countries we think threaten our God-given right to rule the planet and bleed it dry, all while turning the U.S. into a cross between a theocracy and an oligarchy? I'd move to Canada first.

MARTIN KRACKLAUER

Austin, Texas

The election campaign was extremely divisive. Voters were called on to recognize fundamental differences between the candidates. The issues of character and values may have given the edge to Bush. So how can one call for a truce if such important issues are at stake, and why should the nation fall in line behind President Bush? Harmony does not come from a nation united behind its leader, giving him a second chance. It comes from responsible citizens working toward and arguing about the principles they want to build their society on.

PETER MOLNAR

Pezinok, Slovakia

Sullivan described exactly what I have been feeling since Election Day. Americans are wallowing in their divisions, and it is only hurting us. My friends and family are still spitting at one another from the right and left corners with valid but hopelessly opposite points. And you know what? I'm tired. And ready to just get on with life. I hope the country will take Sullivan's words to heart. I don't think we can afford not to.

TIFFANY SALEH

San Diego

Hands-On Heroism

TIME'S reporting on what I did during the election season suggested that I was such a Kerry partisan that I "grappled with a heckling Dean supporter at a Kerry rally in New Hampshire" [Nov. 15]. This was no doubt in reference to a January incident in which I helped two Dean security people escort a heckler from a Dean event. The heckler had been screaming and throwing elbows for quite some time when I stepped in to help. The manager of the Palace Theater said I was a hero for preventing the situation from getting out of control, and two weeks later I was honored to be presented with the key to the city of Manchester by Mayor Robert Baines.

AL FRANKEN

New York City

Now Hiring: Dem Strategists

In "What Happens to the Losing Team?" [Nov. 15], Democratic Leadership Council president Bruce Reed said, "We can't let George Bush define our future." It wasn't Bush who was defining the Democratic Party. I voted as much against Michael Moore, French President Jacques Chirac, the U.N., the elitist media, stuck-up Hollywood and MoveOn.org as for Bush. The single issue for me was the war on terrorism (which in my opinion does include Iraq). Maybe the Democratic Party should start to choose its friends a little better.

ROBERT P. ROSETTA

Plainsboro, N.J.

It's finally over, and the Republicans have firm control of the White House and Congress. The Democrats should now let them have their way, voting for or abstaining on every Republican measure put before them. That way, the choice in the next election will be crystal clear, and the voters will be able to elect the right leaders. With luck, perhaps people will stop taking cues from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken, Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly and start using their own brains to study the important issues facing the country.

FRANKLIN R. MUIRHEAD

Murphys, Calif.

Democrats repeated the mistake we made in 2000: we talked about real issues while Republicans spoke in emotional sound bites. Kerry used reason; Bush used fear. Fear always wins! Why can't Democrats find emotional sound bites? When will we learn? We need new campaign strategists!

BEVERLY FARRAND DUBREUIL

Fairfax, Va.

Second only to the satisfaction of the resounding Republican triumph has been watching the media attempt to figure out what happened. If Democrats really want to understand the red states, they need to talk less and listen more, judge less and learn more. Above all, they need to quit painting the "flyover" states with such a broad brush, get off their high horse and acquire some humility. Until then, we red-state voters will continue to quietly vote in record numbers for candidates we can respect and admire.

JAN KORDISCH

Oklahoma City, Okla.

Fasten Your Seat Belts

In "The Uniter vs. The Divider" [NOV. 15], columnist Joe Klein stated that "rational political discourse may no longer be possible," in part because of "the Limbaughs and Drudges and Hannitys who proselytized for Bush during the endless election season." Klein neglected to acknowledge the equal number of loudmouths on the left who proselytized for Kerry. Al Franken, Chris Matthews and Michael Moore are just as responsible, if not more so, for the lack of reasoned discussion in the U.S.

KELLY GALLAGHER

Regina, Sask.

Klein wrote that "No one really knows which President Bush will show up on Jan. 20 to begin his second term." Some do--it will be the same arrogant, self-impressed zealot of the past four years. But playground bullies eventually get their just deserts, and now it's going to be Bush's turn. He has alienated virtually all our allies and enraged fully half of the voters. Who is on his side? Radical conservatives and Evangelicals--not a lot of company when most of the world is against you. To paraphrase Bette Davis: Fasten your seat belt, Mr. President; it's going to be a bumpy four years.

RICHARD MALLERY

North Hollywood, Calif.

The Whole World Watched

I am not American, but I respect the choice of those who re-elected President Bush [Nov. 15]. I wish to remind them, however, that the decision they have made will also affect the citizens of the rest of the world who hope to see a less violent world in the next four years.

PATAMA UDOMPRASERT

Tokyo

The world stared in disbelief at the election results. Bush lied to Americans and the rest of the world at the U.N. about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He did nothing to prevent the 9/11 disaster, even after he was warned of an attack. He then failed to catch and kill the most important terrorist who attacked the U.S. He tells Americans that freedom is on the march. Meanwhile, Iraqi cities are uncontrolled, hostages are beheaded, and bombs explode almost daily because of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's ill-conceived military planning. The U.S. budget deficit is exploding. Bush has diminished individual rights in the U.S. And we are told he was re-elected because Americans trust his morals and because he makes them feel safer. As the Americans say, Go figure.

PIERRE DE VILLIERS

Johannesburg

It is a blessing in disguise for Kerry that he did not win. No human being, however well endowed with skills of leadership and statesmanship, could possibly clean up the mess Bush has created. So it is poetic justice that Bush was re-elected to clean up his mess.

RAGHAVENDRA SHENOY

Bangalore, India

Europeans went to bed hoping for a better tomorrow and woke up realizing that their dream had lasted only a few hours. I cannot understand how Americans entrusted Bush with four more years in power. Such a victory would be unthinkable in Europe.

JORGE SILVA

Fanzeres, Portugal

How is it that a country with a free press, which saw multitudes of ideas contested and volleyed back and forth during the presidential campaign, could not make 51% of its voters see the simple truth that the incumbent has not made their world safer and does not deserve a second term? How can people in nations with repressive governments continue to argue that a free media will disseminate the truth and ensure the well-being of citizens after what just happened in the U.S.?

CHUAH SIEW ENG

Kuala Lumpur

To my utter dismay, Bush is in for another term, confirming the opinion of those of us in the Third World that terrorism scares Americans so much that they have lost the ability to reason. One can only congratulate Bush for capitalizing on 9/11 to secure another rudderless foreign policy plan for four years. Perhaps Bush's action or inaction will help form a new world order. Should the power of the U.S. begin to wane, China will be waiting in the wings.

AFOLABI BABATUNDE

Lagos

Bin Laden for Bush?

In "How Bush Almost Let It Slip Away" [Nov. 15], columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that "Osama bin Laden was never one to remotely understand the American mind--he spectacularly misjudged 9/11--and he pulled his nemesis over the finish line." My guess is that bin Laden got just what he wanted with his "October surprise" videotape: the re-election of his best recruiter.

NEAL KROLL

Davis, Calif.

Bush's actions in Iraq have proved bin Laden's charge that America is trying to conquer Islamic lands. Bush's aggressive, unilateralist foreign policy and blinkered support for Israel has made him hated throughout the Middle East. His presidency has provided plenty of recruitment material for al-Qaeda. Four more years will doubtless provide more. Yes, bin Laden knew exactly what he was doing when he released that videotape.

LORNA FORSE

Manchester, England