JUST READ OUR LIPS: WE'RE MAD

Last week's elections show once again how wonderful the electorate can be. Voters sometimes fib to pollsters. They seek retribution against the power establishment. They make oracles, national and local, look a bit silly.

Fibbing to pollsters. Proposition B in Missouri was designed to sprinkle $385 million to all levels of education in an incomprehensible formula. Opinion polls showed the measure to be passing. It was clobbered two to one. Many flat out fibbed to the pollsters. They didn't want to confess that they were anti-education. But deep down they were anti-taxes any taxes, for anything, even education.

Missouri will now stumble along with education on the cheap. We take little pride in our university system. So what if the best and brightest professors move elsewhere. Make do. Missouri voters echo President Bush's defining statement: "Read our lips; no new taxes."

In New Jersey, the voters told pollsters the truth and vented their anti-tax rate at the ballot box. Democratic Governor Jim Florio had better look for a new line of work. His 1990 tax "reallocation" plan placing increased taxes on the middle class caused a state-wide revolt that has yet to die down. The New Jersey legislature is now lopsidedly Republican. The Democrats were nuked.

Retribution. The economy stinks and President Bush flies off to yet another international conference. He's in touch with Gorbachev, but out of touch with Joe Six Pack.

In Pennsylvania, the voters treated Richard Thornburgh, two-time governor and most recently Attorney General of the United States, as the incumbent "do nothing" officeholder carrying the still water of President Bush. Get him! He doesn't care about health care or unemployment compensation. He's out of touch. Elect that Senator Waffle or whatever the hell his name is. He may not be much, but he's better than the establishment guy. The miracle of miracles: Mr. Nobody beats Mr. Establishment.

Democrats will bask in the glory of this victory. But if Thornburgh was the incumbent in voters' minds, then the glory may be a shade misplaced.

Silly Oracles. Term limitations were deemed a cinch to win in the state of Washington. The whole mess of our nation's capitol insured that the voters would take out their wrath and adopt stringent limits on incumbency.

Bingo! The voters said no to wrath and yes to prudent political science. They kept faith with the Founding Fathers, expressed their reverence for Faithful Foley and forestalled any California grab of their water rights. The oracles, national and local, were dead wrong. The radio call-in people around the country turned out to be the usual time-on-their-hands cranks they always are.

Joe and Mary Six Pack are a lot smarter than columnists think. They are informed on specific focused ballot issues. They can make up their minds when presented with a clear yes-or-no choice. Regardless of how one many feel about the various outcomes in last Tuesday's elections, they do, in the overall have a politically uplifting quality to them. Joe and Mary Six Pack are alive, angry, and maybe not so well, but fully able to speak their piece and to participate in the democratic process.