A TUESDAY LESS REMARKABLE FOR BEING 'SUPER' THAN 'STUPOR'

Someone obviously forgot to tell Missourians that March 7 was only the second time in the state's history in which they would have the opportunity to take part in the selection of presidential candidates. Only one out of five eligible voters went to the polls on Super Tuesday to have a voice in who holds the most important, critical job in America.

It was not a good day for representative democracy, if, indeed, that curious, often elusive bit of self-governance is still alive and breathing.

But lack of interest, or desire, is not the only casualty from this month's preferential primary. Missourians shirking their civic responsibility are not a new component of our electoral system. We have been doing this for half a century or longer, and unless the mood stirs us, we simply chuck the system and go fishing.

No, the second casualty is even worse. Grudgingly given the power of preference by elected officials in both political parties, we muffed the chance of picking candidates whose careers were not tied to either party and who were relatively free of party domination.

I'm speaking, of course, of the now-aborted efforts of Bill Bradley and John McCain to offer themselves as candidates who were not attached at the hip to their respective parties and whose public careers showed for the most part a daring degree of independence. Not only did these two distinguished Americans venture forth without any encouragement from their party's leadership, they demonstrated their intelligence and integrity by speaking out on subjects their mainstream opponents wanted to avoid, which, unfortunately they were successful in doing.

Indeed, that any substantive subjects were even mentioned from New Hampshire to Missouri in this political season is the direct result of Bradley and McCain or both. Had the two putative nominees of both parties had their choice, they would have turned the dialogue to partisan pap and embarrassing assertion of their personal achievements, real or imagined.

Both losers espoused reforms that every thoughtful Missourian should favor: health care for the uninsured, less influence over public policy by special interests, changes in national political campaigns, restrictions on out-of-control lobbyists, greater attention to moral standards both inside and outside government, amelioration of partisan squabbling in the nation's capital, greater attention to individual needs over selfish interests and a badly needed moratorium on official lies and deceptions with increased emphasis on governmental honesty and integrity.

Both men spoke so convincingly on these subjects that there was no reason to doubt their sincere intentions to reform practices that have proved so debilitating to our national integrity in the past -- and which threaten vital collective citizen confidence right up to this moment.

From the ashes of Super Tuesday America is left with a vice president who has a great deal to answer for over the past seven or eight years, and a state governor who seems to have no comprehensible answer to any question that requires a compound sentence.

The longtime leaders of both parties have grown so accustomed to controlling not only elections but the consequences of those elections that they give little more than lip service to the concept of a representative democracy.

Whether Stupor Tuesday's voters cast their ballots based on issues or personal qualities -- and either is a perfectly valid reason -- there were glaring differences between the leading candidates in both parties. It remains up to this moment a virtual impossibility to define the specific issues advanced by the winners with the exception of their refusal to recognize the reform policies put forth by their opponents. As for personal qualities, neither of the winners appears to have a hidden criminal record, hardly a recommendation elevating them to the highest office in the nation.

These are the times that try men's souls, starting with voter apathy and indifference and extending to the demonstrated muscle of entrenched political groups. Acceptance of these travails may be tolerable at this moment of relative peace in the world and economic prosperity at home. But if history is any indication, this moment of tranquility will be only that, a mere mini-second in millennial time.

America is robbed of the best and the brightest when we are only left with candidates who are neither.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.