MISSOURI WATCH: NATION'S INVISIBLE GOVERNMENTS

To quote the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, "America is electing a president for a new millennium, one who will lead this nation into a new century." In slightly less flowered phrases, the Republican nominee is saying the same thing. So, too, are the party nominees for the office of Governor of Missouri, as well as those seeking offices in Congress and General Assembly.

One of the great traditions of the American political system is that the people have the right to select the leaders of the governments that have been formed, and we believe this with all our hearts and minds. If we only make the right decision, we silently tell ourselves, everything will be all right. The candidates we elect will determine our future through their leadership, their vision, their energy and their dedication -- this mantra helps us survive the campaign ordeal.

Americans have been electing presidents and governors and congressmen and legislators for two centuries now, and we have elected candidates of vision, great leadership, energy and dedication for most of the period. Then, why is it we seem to face so many critical problems after all this time? Why haven't those who convinced us of their great abilities and readiness to govern solved the problems that still seem almost overwhelming after two centuries?

These are not questions we often ask ourselves because to raise them, even in the dark recesses of our mind, would be to question the validity of the system or raise doubts about the abilities of our favorite candidates to deliver on their campaign promises. And that, heaven forbid, would be nothing short of heresy. But, sooner or later, we need to ask some questions beyond the odds of our candidate winning at the next election, for as surely as there are good and bad leaders, there are also good and bad elements in a system that perpetuates the myth of problem solving if our political favorite is elected.

Is it possible that our leaders, once selected, are unable to exert their pledged and promised abilities because of factors beyond their control? Could Herbert Hoover, a good and honest and conscientious man, really have prevented the Great Depression, as Democrats charged back in the early 1930s? Was Jimmy Carter really responsible for the beastly high interest rates, as Republicans charged back in the late 1970s? One could raise questions of misfeasance of every president or governor who ever lived, but the answers would be almost as obvious as the ones raised about Hoover and Carter.

Whether we want to recognize the fact or ignore it in partisan bathos, presidents and governors encounter problems that would have presented themselves whether the leader's party was Democratic or Republican, Whig or Mugwump. A crisis that arises in the middle of an administration is little more than a fickle finger of fate, one that can inject its digital presence at any time, with no urging from the incumbent.

So, you conclude, the emergence of a problem does not forestall immediate and proper action to solve it by the incumbent. Very good, you're listening at least. But what could Herbert Hoover have done to forestall the Great Depression during the time he was in office? What more could Jimmy Carter have done to lower interest rates than let the Federal Reserve solve the problem over the requisite number of months? The truth is that Hoover and Carter did all within their power to correct great national -problems but were unable to accomplish more because there were no other options available. They used the powers they possessed, and they were not inconsiderable, but they were not enough to resolve the dilemmas of the moment.

This seeming powerlessness does not jibe with those who now hold that elected officials possess far too much power and that the force should be not with the elected elite but with the people. This makes for marvelous rhetoric but it is bereft of true logic. For presidents and governors do not fail because they have too much power but because there are other components of our national and state structures that are independent of our constitutional officers.

If you question this, then consider the various power structures of the federal government that operate entirely beyond the realm of the presidency, the congress and the federal courts. One of the most powerful components is political parties, which have a select constituency and which answer only to their members without regard to restrictions. The national committees of the Republican and Democratic parties exercise broad powers that can validate or invalidate actions taken by duly elected officials. So do all the special interest lobbies, which need answer only to those who finance them, and the political action committees, which more often than not seek to subvert solutions that run counter to their own individual goals. Effective lobbyists can accomplish more than conscientious lawmakers because the former operate beyond the parameters of established rules and because they can spend hard cash to win their individualized priorities.

Less powerful but more intrusive is the media, both at the federal and state levels. Players on this team can influence many more minds within an electorate that is either uninformed or laconic. No one rules the actions of the media, save for a few libel laws, and so the media can make up its own rules as it goes along, and there is no court to reject its fallacious conduct. There are columnists and commentators today who pursue a personal agenda that has no relation to constitutional objectives, yet the public has no way of knowing which are honest and which are prejudiced beyond redemption.

Today's tangled web of governance has produced a chief executive's office that can only lead if it has the support and blessing of a large number of independent components. We no longer elect presidents who can lead; we choose candidates who will seek to find a way to provide vision and leadership through political mine fields that are dangerous, even fatal.

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