Letter: Both parties must move toward the middle

If you look at several polls, you'll find that politicians are one of the least trusted people. I think that politicians are out of touch with the general public. This is why Democrats were surprised when Trump won in 2016 and why Republicans were surprised that they didn't have the significant wins expected in the November election.

Both parties like to ignore the facts when they don't agree with their ideology. For instance, the Republicans' denial of climate change for so long and the Democrats' claims that gun control reduces gun violence.

To do better, both parties need to start listening better and need to move back toward the middle instead of the far left or right. They need to stop treating voters like they are stupid.

For instance, Democrats telling us government spending more money will reduce inflation and the conservative newspaper-like document mailed in the November election did more harm to the Republican Party than good, since it was obviously very biased.

Politicians need to remember that Democrats vote for Democratic candidates, and Republicans vote for Republican candidates, which means many races are decided by us independents.

Democrats need to understand that the majority of people don't like the direction the country is going so they need to change course. The economy still has not recovered to its pre-pandemic level, inflation is high, stop spending money to buy votes, crime is high, and our borders are open. Republicans need to talk more how they are going to fix the issues, including environmental ones, make sure companies are balancing the need for profits with the environment, their workers, and customers, and Republicans need to dump Trump.

Both parties need to balance the budget. Think of all the billions of dollars wasted on interest payments.

Bruce Bohren

Gurnee