Los Angeles Times

While politicians have been hesitant to discuss reforming Social Security, an issue long considered to be the third rail of politics, things are different this presidential election. Emboldened by optimistic surplus projections and increasing public support for overhauls to the system, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore have both put forth proposals they claim will strengthen retirement policy.

Presidential candidate George W. Bush has promised to "rally the armies of compassion" in addressing America's most pressing social problems. Single mothers? Absentee fathers? Drug addicts? Let's just mobilize family, neighborhood and community resources.

Although the issue has not gotten as much attention as tax cuts and Social Security reform, the 2000 elections present voters with a sharp contrast on the future of international trade agreements. Vice President Al Gore favors addressing labor rights and the environment in trade agreements; Texas Gov. George W. Bush calls such measures a needless bow to protectionists. But there is far more to this issue than campaign rhetoric would suggest.

The debate over how to improve America's system of K-12 education is raging at all levels this electoral season. At the national level, Texas Gov. George W. Bush proposes a limited school-voucher plan, which Vice President Al Gore rejects in favor of more money for conventional public schools.

In the recent Senate debate on extending permanent normal trade relations, or PNTR, to China, passage was often portrayed as the solution to everything from U.S. trade problems with China to Beijing's intolerance of dissent. In fact, these expectations are grossly unrealistic. PNTR may be a modest improvement in U.S. trade policy toward China, but it is far from a panacea for U.S.-China problems.

The leading presidential candidates are telling us that religion has a legitimate role to play in U.S. politics and public life. Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush have both endorsed the idea of forging stronger bonds between government and religious faith. With even greater fervor, Sen. Joseph I.

With remarkable clarity, this year's presidential campaign exposes the stark regional conflicts shaping U.S. politics. The country's fastest-growing states overwhelmingly favor Texas Gov. George W. Bush, while the poorest economic performers support Vice President Al Gore. Undecided "battleground" constituencies are, almost without exception, average-growth states.

The systematic study of Latinos in the United States has its origins in the ethnic nationalist movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Latino university students caught up in the ethnic pride and identity politics of the era fought to have ethnic studies included in higher education curricula.

In June, President Bill Clinton ventured onto George W. Bush's Texas turf in the hopes of cutting into the governor's Latino support. He appealed to Mexican American voters by touting the need for stronger hate-crime legislation and accused the Republicans of racism for not having confirmed a Latino nominee to the federal court of appeals. "There was no Spanish-speaking plea for El Paso lawyer Enrique Moreno," the president said.

Of the world's great poets, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is perhaps the least familiar in the English-speaking world. Although most educated people know that Goethe wrote the verse drama "Faust," new translations of that masterpiece receive nothing like the attention drawn by new English versions of "The Divine Comedy," the Homeric epics or even Rilke's lyric poetry.