As a senior citizen who has become “invisible” to most political people who are under the age of 50, I believe our country needs to have more political “moderates” and “centrists” than we do now.

I think we were better off in the 1960s when about 20% to 30% of us considered ourselves to be in the middle of the road. Today, this has gone down to about 10% to 15%.

I miss the times when most Democrats and Republicans used to disagree, but with respect. That ship sailed a long time ago. While I am definitely on the side of one of the two “warring tribes,” I am still a 1960s-style Bobby Kennedy liberal Democrat, and I refuse to view conservative Republicans as my enemies even though a lot of them make it very hard not to.

I think we were better off when most elections were usually decided by the 20% to 30% who were in the middle of the road. They had open minds. Most of us don’t anymore.

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester, N.Y.

The writer is a former Squirrel Hill resident who taught at West Virginia and Slippery Rock universities.

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