DICHOTOMIZATION OF POLITICS

No one should better know the importance of choosing one's enemies than Missouri's leading political figure in the nation's capital, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. While still a young, ambitious politician, Gephardt served on the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, where he espoused the "secession" of his hometown from the remainder of the state. His logic, however flawed, was that his hometown supported the rest of Missouri through its financial, cultural, social and political contributions, a factually laughable contention in view of the financial, cultural, social and political handouts that have consistently been sought by St. Louisans in their search for riches in Jefferson City.

The more one learns about the workings of government, the more recognition there is that this constitutionally sanctioned give-and-take within a modern, complex society produces a variety of dichotomies, contradictions that are seemingly logical but actually create the opposite result.

A perfect example of this dichotomous behavior was provided the other day in a strongly worded editorial in the hometown newspaper of Mr. Gephardt. It would seem to qualify as an excellent example of the Forget What We Said in the Past Dichotomy. The piece, "All Kids Can Learn," expressed horror at the suggestion of some Southeast Missouri school superintendents that students from poor homes experience greater difficulties in classroom learning situations. The editorial argued this contention was "not only wrong, it is pernicious." Without arguing the merits or disadvantages of a new system for accrediting public school districts, the dichotomy of the newspaper's stance is amusing were it not so frightfully myopic, for the publication's position on efforts to sustain desegregation payments to their city's schools has been based entirely on the premise that was editorially attacked. The newspaper has long applauded the expenditure of $3 billion in Missouri taxpayer funds to overcome the same concerns now expressed by some outstate schools. When state funds were spent in St. Louis and Kansas City, the cause was a noble, legitimate expenditure of public money, but when rural arguments are advanced using the same premise the idea is labeled "pernicious."

For another example, let's go to the Not in My Backyard Dichotomy. Citizens who demand governmental solutions for social or economic problems often find themselves facing the reality of their demands. For example, neighborhoods all over the state are concerned about the rapid increase in drug transactions in their own block or the one down the street. The best way to combat these nefarious enterprises is through the creation of neighborhood treatment centers where addicts can receive the medical/psychiatric counseling that will unhook them from their egregious habits. But the moment treatment agencies seek locations for these centers, the angry protests of harried homeowners prevent implementation of treatment efforts.

The same dichotomy is apparent when close-to-need programs are proposed for the mentally ill or the developmentally disabled or those enrolled in probation and prison-release projects. It is sometimes evident when space is sought for educational and even cultural programs within the boundaries of "exclusive" neighborhoods. Not in our backyard!

Still another example is the Folks Are as Good as the People Dichotomy. This takes all shapes and forms, but one of the more common ones is provided by the freedom-of-religion group, which enthusiastically supports the principle of religious freedom and tolerance while at the same time demanding that its beliefs receive first priority over all the rest. In defense of this challenging contradiction, we Americans came upon this belief from almost the first moment of Colonial America, when the predominate religion was plain old pure Puritanism. Our puritan forefathers, escaping religious intolerance in Europe, forthwith installed its practices upon reaching the shore of the New World. The hell the Puritans experienced in their native countries was made a part of the existence of others in colonial days, with remnants remaining to this day.

Your Freedom Exists Except When I Disagree Dichotomy is seen throughout local, county, state and federal political circles, and has been enhanced over the years by the mere presence of political expediency. When supporters hailed the one man-one vote principle, established after 200 years of judicial myopia, the ideal of true representative government was finally created. Almost. For an example of where it is still glaringly lacking, we need look only to our state Capitol, where 163 representatives and 34 senators presumably speak for 5.4 million of their fellow citizens. Do they? You be the judge: when one party has a majority within either or both legislative chambers, it controls not only the leadership but the process of creating laws, with barely a brief acknowledgment of the members of the minority. Suppose you are a resident of a house district that sends a Republican to a Democratically controlled General Assembly. The chances of your elected representative achieving any valid recognition of the rights and privileges of individuals within the district are remote at best. For the most part, they are non-existent, since the minority representative has almost no voice in the process of governance, and the reality is he or she can never achieve the status of a fully accredited, participating lawmaker.

One final, brief example. It's called the Need a Friend Dichotomy. Did anyone ever hear an unfortunate citizen whose home has just been destroyed by a tornado, a corporate owner whose business has just been devastated by foreign competition or a landowner whose valuable soil has been overrun by raging floodwaters declare that government aid was unneeded? This example embraces the old wisdom that the government is your enemy until you need a friend. Most of us do, and when we're looking for one, we forget the dichotomousness of it all.

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