Compromise

Regarding your Jan. 17 editorial bemoaning “The Senate’s Shrinking Middle” and the urge to compromise: Consider what centrist deal-making has brought us over the years--a nearly $5-trillion national debt, Medicare and Social Security systems facing bankruptcy (even with current Republican proposals) and a culture whose basic unit--the family--is in clear decline. It it any wonder that even those of us who have always voted Democrat are saying to hell with compromise?

DAVID S. WILSON

Los Angeles