MOMENTOUS POLITICAL CHANGES HIT HOME IN 1992

One need not be an Oxford scholar to recognize that the year 1992 was an extraordinary period of time in a number of categories, not the least remarkable being the political one. Just a year ago we displayed the usual profundity of editorial columnists by predicting the re-election of President Bush and the unbroken succession of Republican state officials in Jefferson City. We gave short shrift to the candidacy of our neighboring governor from Arkansas, pleading for others who would bear fewer personal negatives and provide the requisite leadership to transform the nation into something more than the world's largest consumer of foreign-made goods and products.

Nor did we, nor for that matter anyone else, anticipate the candidacy of that sometimes quirky little Texas billionaire named H. Ross Perot, whose unsignaled entry into presidential politics was as erratic as it was unexpected. Perot produced one monumental change in the campaign: he made it substantive, and in so doing, he added millions of followers whose aspirations did not end last November. Just what this portends, no one knows, certainly not editorial columnists.

The political changes in Missouri were almost as momentous as they were nationally. One year ago it appeared that the long reign of Danforth-Bond-Ashcroft-Webster-or-Blunt would continue unabated, following the expected electoral trend across the country. During the two decades between Warren Hearnes and the second Ashcroft administration, the state had elected only one Democrat, and most historians long ago concluded that was due more to Kit Bond's mistakes than Joe Teasdale's political acumen and leadership.

In just one year America has elected its first baby boomer to the White House and Missouri has ensconced a 58-year-old Democrat who, eight years ago, ran second in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Talk about your dichotomies and the strange bounces of the political ball!

If you like strange turns of events, consider this one. Just as the last nail was being driven in the coffin of Russian communism, the world suddenly began producing vicious internecine conflicts that threatened to be as disruptive as the old Cold War. Disputes that had remained dormant as long as the U.S. and the USSR were arguing over dominance in virtually every region of the globe suddenly burst forth to produce a world that seemed to be engaged in countless racial, ethnic and economic civil wars.

And here in America, as our farmers once again proud to be the most productive anywhere, bumper yields came bursting from the fields of almost every crop grown, while a few thousand miles away, hundreds of thousands were dying of starvation because their leaders would not permit the delivery of rescue stocks. And like the cobblers' children, America's homeless were almost ignored, even though many came close to starving every day.

If you like further dichotomies, consider Congress. An institution envisioned by our Founding Fathers as being the most representative of the people, has become, through fault of its own, one of the least liked and respected institutions in America. Despite the fact that most constituents like and vote to re-elect their home-state congresspersons, we will have more than 120 new members of Congress in 1993, few of whom possess any real knowledge about how their job should be performed. They will have even less understanding of how to change for the better the branch of government they are entering. Logic prevents anyone from assuming that just because we have a large number of new members in Congress we will soon have a legislative branch that functions more efficiently and more ethically .

At the state level, by a remarkable victory margin of 75 percent, voters instituted legislative but not executive department term limits, decreeing that eight years in each chamber shall be the longest allowable time for public service. In an institution in which knowledge is the only commodity that has not been trashed by special interests and the high cost of politics, voters have decided to make understanding of state government the least valuable qualification of public servants. Once they begin to know and understand how the state's multibillion-dollar budget functions, lawmakers will be asked to leave Jefferson City. It is a high price to pay for partisanship seeking to limit Democratic majorities in both legislative houses.

As in years past, we will greet the new one with relief that the old year has passed. And, as often happens, there will come a time in the new year that we will wish fervently for a return to the old one. Sic transit qloria, y'all.