MISSOURI WATCH: THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICAN ELECTIONS: PUBLIC JUST DOESN'T CARE

One of these days America will hold an election and no one will come.

This may be nothing but journalistic hyperbole, but consider these facts from a survey conducted recently by the Washington Post, Harvard University and the Kaiser Family Foundation:

>One out of four voters does not know that Al Gore is Bill Clinton's running mate.

>Nearly four out of 10 voters cannot name the Republican candidate for vice president.

>One out of four voters does not know Ross Perot is running for president.

>Nearly four out of 10 voters incorrectly believe Clinton is the candidate who prefers government vouchers that would help parents send their children to private or parochial schools.

>Approximately three out of 10 Missouri voters cannot name the Republican candidate for governor.

To continue would simply give readers a bad case of indigestion, particularly if thoughtful Missourians consider the wide range of amendments voters will be asked to approve or reject in just a couple of weeks. Several of these amendments are complicated and not a few of them have far-ranging consequences for the state and its citizens.

To hope there will suddenly be widespread public understanding of the position of the candidates or the issues involved on November 5 is mere wishful thinking. There won't be widespread understanding for a number of reasons which are not hard to find:

1. The average U.S. and Missouri voter does not take seriously the system of representative government. The public is simply not interested to any great degree in the process of choosing elected representatives who will serve them, the state or nation in a professional, honest and intelligent fashion. The system has become so debased by the misdemeanors and felonies of participants that we will never see the day when the concepts advanced by the founding fathers are realized.

2. Even those who understand the concept of representative government are not always sympathetic to its ideals because of personal whim, background or partisan prejudice. If we are the sum total of our genetic and environmental experiences, then most of us are willing to express our views without making an effort to decide on both candidates and issues in a logical, intelligent manner.

3. There is widespread belief that there is something demeaning in becoming involved in the political process. "I don't trouble myself with politics" is not an uncommon expression, accepted by those within hearing distance not as a cop-out but as a legitimate excuse.

4. Studying the public positions of candidates and learning the details of public policy amendments takes time, effort and a determination to be fair-minded. Most of us are too busy working, watching television and considering the fate of our favorite athletic team to bother with such inconsequential matters as the qualifications of candidates and the complex points of constitutional amendments.

The irony in this is that public disgust causes public withdrawal from campaigns and elections, leaving both to the less qualified, the aggressively ambitious and special interests that have a huge stake in keeping the public disinterested and inattentive to how governments in Jefferson City and Washington are run.

Can you believe that the Post-Harvard-Kaiser survey found that 8 percent of those questioned did not know the name of the Democratic candidate for president? Hello, America, are you listening at all or simply unconscious? Come on, folks, we have too much at stake to turn the entire electoral system over to a small handful who have God-only-knows-what in mind for the future of our government and the future of our Republic.

Understanding campaigns and how the system works is not nuclear science. It is simply taking the time and making a small amount of effort to learn a few simple facts and details about your job as Citizen. There's no membership fee, and thank heavens, you don't have to take an intelligence test to participate. Otherwise, one of these days we'll wake up and read a sign that says: "All Elections Are Canceled Until Further Notice."

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