EDITORIAL : STICK TO THE ISSUES BOTH SIDES TAKING THE LOW ROAD IN DEBATE OVER PROP. 209.

IT is getting harder to tell who's who in the debate over Proposition 209, the so-called California Civil Rights Initiative, which would end affirmative action preferences in state hiring, contracting and education.

Both sides are in danger of losing their way - whether they're doing the right thing for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for the right reasons.

The debate should be about whether California affirmative action laws that give preferential treatment based on racial and gender identification are the best way to go about helping disadvantaged people.

A lot of minorities and women have received educational and employment opportunities during the past 30 years that they might have been denied without affirmative action. These programs enjoyed broad community support as a means of creating greater equality in American society.

But this is 1996. Times have changed. A generation has passed. And a backlash against preferences is building.

Part of the problem is that a lot of people who are in no way disadvantaged economically or socially are among those who are getting preferential treatment.

Put simply, do the children of those who have benefited from affirmative action need or deserve preferential treatment? Is it fair to exclude all white males from the class deserving preferential treatment regardless of their families' economic and social history? Do all Latinos, Asians, African-Americans and women deserve a helping hand - but poor immigrants from Europe do not?

These are serious questions that deserve serious debate. They do not deserve the kind of treatment that students at Cal State Northridge gave them by inviting David Duke, a bigot from Louisiana, to speak against affirmative action - as if all those who support Proposition 209 are driven by racist sentiments.

Nor do they deserve the crass political partisanship displayed by Gov. Pete Wilson in organizing a ``confidential'' fund-raising conference call for 60 business leaders. With House Speaker Newt Gingrich's support, Wilson trampled on the idea that the campaign for Proposition 209 was bipartisan.

Wilson said: ``This, I think, has every bit the potential to make a critical difference in the race for (GOP presidential nominee Dole) and House members . . . (it) is very much an issue in legislative and congressional races. And it is one that works strongly to our advantage.''

So Proposition 209 is being used by one of its leading proponents as a wedge issue, one intended to divide and confuse the electorate - not enlighten it. It's the same with the blanket racism charges made by the other side.

Californians deserve better from both camps. This kind of treatment of a serious issue demeans everyone and leaves scars and bitterness no matter which side wins.

It is time for the politically active to take a higher road. And if not, it is time for the electorate to rebel and punish the dishonest, the divisive and the destructive.