Missouri's unsettling political crisis

KENNETT, Mo. -- Although it has generally been ignored throughout much of the state, one of Missouri's two political parties is facing a crisis that has not seen its equal since the decline and demise of the Pendergast machine in Kansas City. During that turbulent era, the Democratic Party, through little fault of its own, created a power vacuum that eventually produced a Republican governor and a conservative-dominated Missouri Legislature that for nearly a decade changed the face of state government at virtually every level.

The party transformation during the late 1930s and early 1940s has received little attention from historians, despite the fact that it changed the basic tenets of state government in our state and temporarily ushered in a more conservative, cautious style of governing the affairs of some 4 million residents. Most residents were delighted by this transformation because the Pendergast organization was less about the method of governing than the careful preservation of its own political powers, which had grown so great that many believed the state capital had been moved from the central part of the state to its far western boundary.

The Pendergast machine, knowing little about the workings of state government, failed miserably as a substitute for what had long been recognized as a conservatively driven state that eschewed basic public interests in favor of preserving the status quo of low taxation and minimal public service. It took years for the state to shake off this lack of concern in serving the public interest, a philosophy that helped guarantee Missouri's status as an accredited member of the philosophical clan which placed the public somewhere below the creation of township governance and the philosophy that local needs could best be met by local political parochials. Basic services were designed to accommodate the wishes of those controlling the political process, not those needing relief.

Missouri's highway system, as late as the early 1940s, consisted primarily of meeting the needs and wishes of local and county development groups. Its health-care delivery system was virtually zero, while its mental health services consisted in providing a roof for those whose families no longer wanted to tolerate their eccentric behavior. The state's penal system was merely a centralized lockup that crowded black prisoners into cells that were designed for half their number. While paying homage to the concept of better schools, state leaders made certain that none of the dollars assigned to Jefferson City made their way into local classrooms.

To say the least, Missouri was less primitive than Mississippi or Alabama or Arkansas as it struggled to free itself from the philosophy of the Pendergast era and its stifling control over every election held in the state for nearly two decades. Even as Boss Tom was headed for a federal penitentiary, his henchmen sought to overthrow the electoral wishes of a majority of Missourians in the 1940 gubernatorial contest by placing a Democrat in office despite the obvious victory of the GOP candidate, Forrest Donnell. Despite the awakening of public interest and concern over the quality of state government in the 1940s, either one or both chambers of the legislature remained under the nefarious Pendergast influence throughout the long decade of public recovery from machine influence and domination.

Whether Missourians will learn from the results of their statewide transformation in the 1940s is, at best, iffy. One seldom sees any serious consideration of the fate of the Republican Party in 1940 or any thoughtful analysis of how Democrats regained sufficient strength to lead the state after more than a decade of decline. But both are germane to the political configuration that has emerged in this new century, and both parties could find enough lessons taught six decades ago to their future roles in state government.

One of the main reasons the Republicans wrested control of both the state Senate and House of Representatives last fall is that Democrats in Jefferson City sought to emulate national politics as practiced by their counterparts in Washington, although it seems obvious that few of their leaders are aware of the true lessons provided by history. Because the state is, by the very nature of its inhabitants, more conservative than liberal, trying to capture the spirit of today's Democratic power centers on both coasts is like trying to make Missourians like lobster bisque or foie gras. They might go along for the sake of unity or partisan unity, but the desire to influence every aspect of residnets' lives is missing in true Missourians. The party is on much firmer philosophical ground than the pseudo-liberalism of today's political hierarchy. And any attempt to move in that direction will be rejected and only contribute to further erosion.

Recent attempts to accomplish their political change have resulted in the loss of control of both legislative chambers and a questionable future for its current leader, Gov. Bob Holden.

If Republicans are spared the Democratic demise, they too must ignore the radical wings of their own political establishment and adopt more vital tactics than simply opposing programs established earlier by Democrats. One does not fashion a workable state budget by simply penciling in the fiscal restraints created by national/state recession. The era of meeting residents' basic needs does not end because party leaders locate dangerous philosophical enemies halfway around the world nor do residents prove their patriotic fervor by placing undying trust in the decisions of appointed officials playing political dominoes.

If the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, than the price of successful leadership is paying attention to the voices of the silent, unheard majority.

Jack Stapleton is the editor of Missouri News & Editorial Service.