THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 19, 1995 TAG: 9508180017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Basketball great and gentleman politician Bill Bradley, D-N.J., at 52 won't seek re-election to the Senate after three terms. In announcing his decision, he denounced both parties and said politics in America is broken.
Some might regard this as sour grapes. Bradley eked out a narrow victory in 1990 over conservative Republican Christine Todd Whitman. She went on to win the governorship. Bradley might have had a hard time winning another term in New Jersey where the political winds are not blowing in his direction.
But Bradley has been an unusually straight-talking politician from the beginning. His parting shots deserve to be taken seriously. His complaint that ``neither party speaks to people where they live their lives'' rings true. And he is also right to worry about a Republican Party so reflexively anti-government it can't admit any government function is needed and a Democratic party that thinks government can cure any ill.
Bradley complains that the parties are in ``two familiar ruts'' and therefore can't address the new, emerging problems that face us. He's long been a bipartisan critic of Washington policies, critical of Republicans for ignoring realities of race and poverty and of the Clinton administration for wishful thinking on foreign-policy issues including China and Russia. He has worried that both parties are failing to sustain the middle class though policies that create a well-educated work force and well-paid jobs, a social safety net without punishing taxation.
Some admirers imagine Bradley challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination, but he has appeared to rule that out. Bradley has long been a reluctant dragon in national politics. He might have had a good shot at the nomination in both 1988 and 1992, but lacked the fire in the belly and he willingness to do what it takes to win in the big leagues. He's preferred civility to sharp elbows and has possessed more thoughtfulness than charisma - big drawbacks in an era of media demagoguery.
Interestingly, however, Bradley said he still intended to find a way to perform public service and that the dreary state of the two-party debate may mean it's time to explore ``a third way.''
Bradley may not ultimately be the man who rallies a large and disaffected segment of the electorate. But he joins the growing list of concerned citizens who regard the existing parties as more interested in polarizing debates over inconsequential hot-button issues than with addressing serious economic and social threats to the American Dream. by CNB