Mossburg is wrong to blame city voters

Columnist Marta Mossburg begins her criticism of Baltimore voters with Ronald Reagan's question: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" ("City voters reward officials for failure," Nov. 23). What a simplistic, childish question to ask generally uninformed voters before they go to the polls. Americans must stop thinking that the "American Dream" means moving endlessly forward toward ever-increasing wealth for everyone. It's time for responsible columnists to disabuse readers of this naïve vision.

In recent years, in our effort to get rich quick, the country encouraged financial gambling by big banks and Wall Street. Look where that got us — bailouts for failure at taxpayers' expense. Fooled into other risk-taking to show American muscle, not brains, the public passively accepted George W. Bush's unfunded wars. Now it's time to pay the bills.

Ms. Mossburg missed an opportunity. America has serious problems to solve. She could have proposed ways forward rather than ranting — yet The Sun continues to indulge her with space on the op-ed page.

Martha G. Little, Baltimore