Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9411050012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: E2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: E. JACQUES MILLER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Some of the people interviewed complained about the lack of leadership among our elected officials. Others deplored the general quality of the candidates on the ballot. Many feel that defensive voting (which candidate will do the least damage) is the only option left.
These and similar complaints are echoed each week in numerous letters to the editor and commentaries. It seems everybody is dissatisfied with the system, but it doesn't change. Why?
It's time to take a good look at our system, and what we can expect from it. We kid ourselves when we expect the electoral process to send leaders to Washington, Richmond, the county seat or to city hall. Elected representatives are public servants, not leaders. They are mirror images of ourselves, and we're foolish to expect them to have higher moral values or more intelligence than we do. If we're lucky, they'll behave like good servants, and do what they think we want them to do. If we're unlucky, they'll do the bidding of those who paid for their election campaigns. We haven't been very lucky lately.
The electoral process requires that candidates promise what they think we want to hear. If we want something for nothing - less crime, better schools, more jobs, more national security, better transportation systems and lower taxes - they'll promise to deliver it all. That's pure fantasy, of course, but we prefer to believe it at election time. It may be true that there is no free lunch, but we keep trying. Witness the popularity of the lottery, river-boat gambling, casinos and horse racing.
We live in a finite world with finite resources. And yet we steadfastly refuse to accept taxes that would change the economic environment to encourage development of alternative sources of energy. The protection of our land, water and air from further pollution is treated only in terms of its effect in the immediate economic situation. And yet we know our very existence depends on the quality of these primary resources.
If our vision of the future is limited to our own lifetime, how can we expect our elected officials to see beyond the next election?
We're quick to blame everybody and anybody for our troubles - immigrants, leftist liberals, rabid rightists, politicians in general, lobbyists, the elite, Madison Avenue, the media - you name it. Let's not, for instance, complain that there's too much sex and violence on television. Market surveys clearly show that that is what we want to watch.
That great political philosopher from the Okefenokee Swamp said it better than anyone else: ``We have met the enemy and they are us.''
E. Jacques Miller of Roanoke is a retired engineer and industrial economist.
by CNB