MISSOURI WATCH: CLUELESS ABOUT GOVERNMENT IN THE LAND OF JEFFERSON

Although I feel uncomfortable making the statement, the truth is that we Americans are getting the kind of governments we have earned. Notice, I didn't say we're getting what we deserve, because the truth is, we deserve better governments than we're getting.

The trouble is we're not earning better governments because we're either incapable or unwilling to learn how they operate, why they operate and, perhaps worst of all, who operates them.

Don't take my word for it. Look at the results of a just-completed survey of American voters, conducted by the Washington Post and Harvard University. The study sought to determine just how much (in this case, how little) Americans know about their government. If you've seen one of these polls in the past, the Post-Harvard results won't surprise you, although you might be in shock when you see how little public comprehension there is out there about what is happening in national and state capitols.

First, let's start with the basic survey results: Two-thirds of those interviewed couldn't name the man or woman who represents them in the U.S. House of Representatives. Half didn't know whether their congressman was a Republican or a Democrat. Four in 10 didn't know, or guessed incorrectly, the name of the Vice President of the United States. Nearly half couldn't describe any constitutional duty of the U.S. Supreme Court and three out of four were unaware that U.S. Senators are elected for six-year terms. Four in 10 were unaware that the GOP controls both chambers of Congress.

No words can hide the fact that these results point to a basic ignorance about how America is governed and who is doing the governing. No icing on the cake can make us feel any better about these results because they indicate such a basic lack of knowledge that any thought of improving public understanding seems hopeless. These questions are hardly brain-busters; they're simply basic points that most presumed the other half knew all along or had simply forgotten because of a lapse of time between when they were learned and now. Seemingly, the facts were never learned or perhaps they were never even taught.

Let's move on to an even more troubling aspect of the Post-Harvard survey: the lack of knowledge most Americans have about how their government operates and what it is doing at this moment in history. If the poll respondents couldn't identify who was running their governments, they seemed equally in the dark about what their officials were actually doing. The amount of misinformation about this aspect of self-governance is as shocking as the first avalanche of ignorance. Nearly six in 10 incorrectly believed their federal government spends more on foreign aid than on Medicare. And when asked to guess they estimated that, on the average, foreign aid made up 26 percent of the budget. (Just to remind readers, foreign aid, both military and developmental funds, runs slightly less than two percent of U.S. spending, while Medicare amounts to 13 percent.)

FIfty-eight percent said No and 17 percent didn't know that the House has passed a plan to balance the federal budget, and the numbers were even greater on Senate action. Only 28 percent knew that federal government employees have decreased in the past three years. Thirty-five percent said it was the same, 34 percent said it had increased and 3 percent didn't know. Obviously, 72 percent had no knowledge at all.

As bad as all of this is, the survey raises an even more desperate issue, namely the ability of the American public to direct its leaders and to demand policies that will serve the best interests of both individuals and the country as a whole.

We have taken on faith the fact that the citizens of these United States were intelligent enough, knowledgeable enough and mature enough to reach a proper consensus on any problem of major import. The results of the Post-Harvard survey raise serious questions about that presumption.

If Americans haven't the foggiest idea how much their representative government is spending on such programs as foreign aid and health care for the elderly, how do we expect them to provide any instruction to their elected officials? More importantly, how can we expect that when voters do express their views that they are any more intelligent than the lame-brained answers given to Post-Harvard pollsters?

Furthermore, if Americans are so little informed about what's occurring in Washington, how Republicans have led a major battle to balance the federal budget and how a Democratic president has made major cuts in the federal work force, then what can we expect in the way of public enlightenment on issues far more complicated and far more elusive? I'm afraid the answer has to be: not much.

The survey reveals one more disturbing point, and this, too, is worth worrying about. If citizens can't properly identify problems, and their solutions, facing the government as a whole, how can they be expected to identify, much less offer solutions, to problems that affect them personally? We presumably have a system of governance that will permit citizens to seek answers to both individual and collective issues, but they must first be defined and then pursued. Citizens who can do neither contribute not one iota to representative democracy nor its functioning.

The all encompassing concept of these United States was the idea of self-governance, citizens making proper decisions through their elected officials. This works if citizens are capable of making decisions, based on rock-hard truths, and intelligently addressing problems and pursuing their solutions through the electoral process. Simply put, not even the greatest system of governance will work if its citizens will not think.

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