So you like divided government?

KENNETT, Mo. -- Missourians have been receiving an unsolicited example of divided state government in recent weeks, making it an unfortunate period of turmoil that has literally paralyzed the single most important function of a democracy, namely serving the basic and best interests of its constituency.

Before any blame is accorded in the current state Capitol brouhaha between Democrats and Republicans, let it be noted that divided control of the executive and legislative is not essentially bad, evil or counterproductive, and that divided control of the two most critical divisions of a democracy can serve a useful purpose.

This is particularly true of the executive and legislative branches since each is a semiautonomous body and operates best when one monitors the work of the other.

It is only when control of the divisions of government is so fiercely contested that one branch seeks to lead all systems into contested, antithetical directions that a serious problem occurs.

And, unfortunately for nearly five million Missouri residents, this best describes what has been happening in Jefferson City for the past six months as a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature each concluded that the best way to serve and govern was to find as many divisions of difference between the two and then exploit them into electoral advantage.

Democratic governors and Republican legislatures don't always precipitate divisions such as those that have been occurring in the Missouri capital during virtually all of the current year, but as each of us seemed to agree, after Sept. 11, 2001, the world and America have changed, and the result has been an unexpected recession that has altered much of the business of democracy.

Times are tough and seem to be getting tougher, thus assuring that political leaders in the nation's capital, 50 state capitals and counties and municipalities from Maine to California have inherited problems that aren't mentioned in the statutory lists of duties.

We're quite certain that Democrat Bob Holden and Republicans Peter Kinder and Catherine Hanaway never anticipated the tormenting problems that confronted them as the national recession began affecting how their branches of government would operate during periods of lean tax collections and growing public needs.

This is almost a recipe for disaster, even under the best of conditions and even when the answers were not overwhelmed by partisan philosophy and future electoral prospects.

Recent-month conditions in Jefferson City have not mitigated but exasperated Missouri's miseries upon the discovery that revenue shortfalls were greater than anticipated and that resident needs were increased following the fall 2001 tragedy.

The smaller tax receipts produced shorter tempers in Cole County as well as elsewhere in the state.

With disappearing piles of available money to fund ongoing projects, much less launch new ones, the pressure began to build between the two branches in the Capitol and the result was a partisan civil war that promised political gains for the winning side and electoral ignominy for the losers.

Both Holden and his GOP opponents on the floor above him seemed to understand the repercussions of the standoff quicker than the rest of us, but since Jefferson City is Missouri's unquestioned breeding ground for cesspool politics, the public can be excused for its failure to grasp the immediate effects.

As the victims of this electoral contretemps, the people of Missouri could do little else but assume the role of spectator, a role that called for little else other than living with whatever the results might be.

Thus we witnessed weeks of charges and countercharges, months of name-calling and partisan bickering that were disappointing and unsettling.

The governor wanted higher taxes on luxury and nonessential items and tougher tax rules for past-favored constituents despite loud voter disapproval of earlier submitted levy increases.

The Republicans wanted to adjust state spending with declining tax collections and set about to single out agencies in which billion-dollar budgets were declared sacrosanct and inviolate.

If either side offered satisfactory resolutions through mutual compromise, it was never publicized, and so the state began a civil war that continues up to this very moment in our history. In the meantime, revenue collection reports continue to darken the environment, and Missourians have neither commiseration nor resolution despite the almost total diversion of concentration and dogged efforts of our most important elected officials.

We have sometimes wondered over these long, strife-torn months who was actually running the state's largest business other than the hired help.

We have yet to find an answer. It has even been suggested that citizen-revolutionaries call out the National Guard with orders to round up Holden, Kinder, and Hanaway and hold them hostage in a locked room until the three could agree on a more sane, responsible and responsive state government for millions of anxious citizens in 114 counties.

The time better spent on resolving the needs of ordinary, hard-working and deserving Missourians has been devoted far too long to partisan pretension that serves only a small band of political purists who, unfortunately, have forgotten their earlier promise to forego personal gain in pursuit of the common good.

The train is off the track.

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