NEWTON'S LAW: HOWEVER ELECTION SHAPES UP, DO NOT LET TOCQUEVILLE DRIVE

The next American presidential election is 594 days away and some folks, mostly those with press credentials, are getting antsy about it.

The question was put to Speaker of the House Thomas Foley a couple of weeks ago: "Where are the Democratic candidates?"

The wise old bird from Washington responded, in so many words, hey, I don't hear anybody crying that the presidential race hasn't been launched.

He's right. The American voters would as soon wake up in the early fall of 1992 to discover that a slate of candidates has been put together for their consideration. I don't discount the number of subtleties involved in this decision, but the number of holes available to be punched amount to exactly two. The decision I make at the end of two months would not be appreciably better than the one I would make at the end of two years.

Besides, the war, followed by the exhilaration of triumph, has held the nation's attention. George Bush, the leader of Kuwait's liberation and a highly popular man these days, is ready to seek another term. Challengers to this popularity have not exactly been coming out of the walls.

Only ardent political junkies care to see Al Gore spend months in Iowa farm kitchens discussing ... well, the status of Iowa farm kitchens.

Another reason to be pleased that Campaign '92 might be delayed until closer to 1992 has to do with a long-dead Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville.

Tocqueville was a philosopher and statesman who visited the United States in 1831. From this visit was produced a work called "Democracy in America," a landmark publication on the workings of our government, as seen through the eyes of a foreigner.

Every election, one politician, then another and another, will drag out some observation from Tocqueville's masterpiece and inject it in a stump speech. Not many politicians have actually read these volumes, maybe the Cliff Notes, but the phrases sound high-flown and worthy of a candidate running on the principles of democracy.

Most people who hear these stump speeches don't know whether the Frenchman's words stand up after 156 years. It is reasonable to assume Tocqueville missed a few important elements of our democracy by showing up on our shores so early.

What of something with everyday significance to an orderly modern society? In the 1830s, he probably had no four-way stops to deal with.

Inconsequential? Four-way stops are the most common presence we have of democracy in action.

Pull to the intersection and established rules kick in. When there is confusion, the civility and good sense of fellow citizens are forced to take hold. There will be scofflaws and those will be met by hateful glares or culpability in a fender-bender.

Not much bad happens at intersections with four-way stops; everybody has an opportunity and people tend to work things out.

Traffic signals, on the other hand, are fascist. What can be more totalitarian than being told when to stop and when to go. Then, there is that ominous caution light ... Big Brother is not pink, but amber.

Let's return to Tocqueville, as so many politicians do. The Frenchman warned:

I hold it to be an impious and an execrable maxim that, politically speaking, a people has a right to do whatsoever it pleases, and yet I have asserted that all authority originates in the will of the majority. Am I, then, in contradiction with myself?

To me, that means two things. One, I'm not anxious for the presidential campaign to start.

And, two, if Alexis de Tocqueville pulled up on your right at a four-way stop, chances are you'd be there a while.