To the editor:

The reason so many Americans support the change that Barack Obama represents is that he embodies an end to the calculated divisiveness of the Bush-Cheney election strategies. He pledges not to pander to produce a sliver of votes. He does not deliberately enflame the anger and hatred that drive a small proportion of our population in order to win elections. He will not run a government driven by fuzzy academic theories of regime change or propose the use of armed forces to deliver freedom to foreign cultures. He promises to govern in the name of all the American people and not some class of true believers.

That is the message so many journalists seem unable to communicate to the public. It is a commonplace interpretation of the Rove genius that he cultivated a series of small groups of the dissatisfied to create enough votes to claim a bare victory in elections. The elections of 2000 and 2004 were anything but national expressions of the popular will. Barack Obama is stating in very clear terms that he rejects that kind of slice and dice of the American people. That's why people are cheering his vision of change. It is a message of cooperation, not conflict.

The message Barack Obama sends is clear: the knives go back into their sheaths, out of each other's backs. We can't enact the reforms this country needs until we stop the war among ourselves.

HARRIET H. YOUNG

Flagstaff