Primary election- Day of dereliction

KENNETT, Mo. -- Suppose Missouri held an election and no one came to the polls

Or imagine that eligible voters who failed to cast a ballot in the last election would have to re-register.

Or consider the possibility of assessing a poll tax on citizens who didn't show up at the last primary or general election.

You'll have to admit that such proposals -- each of them proposed as Missouri statutes in past years -- seem uncomfortably undemocratic, perhaps even unconstitutional.

I suppose it's human nature to excuse our failures while stoutly proclaiming our rights and privileges. Indeed the practice is as old as the American Revolution when our Forefathers overlooked their sworn allegiance to the British crown and proclaimed their inherent right to fashion their own constitution and create their own government despite the fact both were forbidden by English law.

Today we applaud the revolutionary spirit of our colonial heroes, even bestowing spiritual inspiration on their efforts to form a new nation in which the worth of the individual would be far more valuable than the two pounds offered by King George for the death of anyone brave enough to defy his edicts.

We sometimes overlook the fact that the Constitution's authors were voluntarily breaking the prevailing laws for the colonies even as they gathered in Philadelphia to do exactly that.

Have you ever wondered how many Americans would place themselves in a similarly vulnerable position in 2002? Oh, we talk freely about our patriotism, waving the Stars and Stripes from anything that moves and publicly declaring our allegiance to the precepts of American democracy. But how brave would we be if we had to bet our lives on the benevolence or the indifference of our governors?

Would we really die for our freedom? Or would we seek to placate the government with proposals and compromises that would allow us to remain in our comfortable homes with our comfortable lifestyle? I don't believe I'm being overly pessimistic to suggest that the majority of patriots might quickly become a minority of patronizers.

Just how dedicated are today's citizens to what we call the American Way of Life, a term that serves as more or less the knee-jerk declaration of our deep and abiding good citizenship?

"I'm a good American" we declare defiantly and proudly, while displaying no proof of validation. Unfortunately, there is considerable proof to the contrary, and, sadly, it is evident within our own state and communities. Indeed, there is more evidence that a majority of us are neither good nor American when it comes to performing the duties and responsibilities of free citizens.

Let's take a look at our performance.

Less than one out of every four eligible voters will go to the polls on primary election day. You don't have to take my word for it. The secretary of state's office has already estimated that fewer than 25 percent of all eligible Missourians will cast a ballot, displaying both their indifference to our constitutional republican form of government and even their inert disrespect for the millions of Americans who have died defending the cause of freedom and liberty.

Some primaries have drawn no more than one voter out of five, but any claim that the somewhat higher estimate this year is a victory for democracy is verbal garbage.

What kind of a constitutional validation is achieved when three out of four eligible Missourians simply don't participate in the electoral process?

The August primary is the first of two processes whereby Missourians form the future of their county and state governments as well as the composition of their entire lower legislative chamber and half of their state senate as well as the total delegation in the U.S. House of representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate.

As usual, ballot proposals list numerous projects and, depending on the venues, millions and millions of public dollars for state and federal highways, county jails and courthouses, new school classrooms and a variety of health-care services.

Anyone who declared this election to be unimportant didn't know what he was talking about. The disturbing, even more amazing fact of this primary is that its makeup is similar to those previous years, yet voters seem to be caught unaware of any important issues or their obligation to decide them.

In military parlance, this is called dereliction of duty. Elsewhere it is called desertion. Several letters to the editor around the state have voiced complaints that primary elections in August interfered with school vacation periods, were scheduled during a hot-weather month or were not important enough to merit the voters' consideration.

Just when did we decide that public issues and candidates for public office should be scheduled for the convenience of individuals? Any day now we expect to read some pinhead's idea for establishing polling booths in supermarkets or gas stations to make the whole tiresome process more convenient for the voters who can't be bothered with such an inconvenient process.

If voters find the electoral process so demanding and so inconvenient in their personal schedules, why don't we establish a process whereby they can transfer their responsibility to participate? After all, if voters aren't going to take part in the democratic process, what harm can there be to relieve them of undue tensions and discomfort?

I'm kidding, of course, but I wonder how much patience the Founding Fathers would have shown for those who professed the fidelity of their desire for freedom but refused to participate in the deliberations in Philadelphia because the timing was inconvenient or because the issues were simply "not that important."

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