It may surprise Ms. Trudy Rubin (Sept. 3) to find out that the American wealth gap we all decry has not been created by Republican policies as she states, but rather by a host of factors, almost all of which involved Democrats.

They include, but are not limited to, lack of regulation of certain parts of the financial sector, failure of energy policies for more than 30 years, poor intelligence from an entrenched bureaucracy that allowed an attack and then misled members of both parties to vote to go to war, corruption in Washington and a Democrat-dominated Congress correctly perceived by the voters as ineffective at solving problems.

Sen. Barack Obama may think he gets the overall picture in a way Sen. John McCain doesn’t. But even in the framework of today’s cultural complexities, there is one thing that hasn’t changed since the end of the Cold War, and probably never will.

The failure to confront a bully will always be wrong. It is just as true now as it was in the 1930s.

Joanne Schueth, Harrison