DATE: Friday, June 13, 1997                 TAG: 9706130009

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B13  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: Keith Monroe 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

POLL FINDS VIRGINIANS IN A MODERATE, MELLOW MOOD

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that ``Many Americans View Washington as a Mess and Just Tune It Out.'' Wow, stop the presses. Dog bites man.

Even more embarrassing, it required the efforts of pollsters to arrive at this entirely predictable conclusion. Next they'll be trying to figure out why many Americans view Washington as a mess.

Could it be sleaze like the Paula Jones case, Newt Gingrich's ethics fine, a sea of soft money, a special prosecutor who's not nearly special enough, the spectacle of Sen. Jesse Helms rejecting a sitting governor of his own party for an ambassadorship for reasons of personal pique?

Could it be a military awash in sex scandals, a secretary of defense flip-flopping furiously, a Congress so caught up in partisan tit-for-tat that it can't get relief to flood victims?

No wonder many Americans try not to view Washington at all. But that doesn't mean they are sunk in a slough of despond or out of touch with reality or burning with a desire for reform. It could mean they've gotten a life.

Another poll, this one the annual Quality of Life in Virginia survey by Virginia Tech, suggests many Virginians are perfectly happy to let Washington go to hell in its own fashion while they cultivate their own garden. They've got better things to do than suffer angst over a Washington that increasingly resembles the Jerry Springer show.

Of course, a percolating economy helps spread cheer. And the Virginia Tech poll found that over 80 percent of Virginians polled believe the economy is improving. More than 80 percent are satisfied with their jobs; 79 percent are satisfied with their income and financial situation.

Eighty-six percent think Virginia is a good or excellent place to live, more than 76 percent think it's a good place for their children to get an education and 68 percent think it's a good place to find a job.

This Pollyanna outlook slops over to political figures without evident regard for partisan affiliation. So 79 percent of Virginians say Gov. George F. Allen is doing a good job, but 65 percent think President Clinton is doing a good job too. Only on the local level are politicians unpopular - 50.4 percentof those polled said their local government or city council is doing only a fair or a poor job.

If there's anything surprising in the Virginia Tech poll - other than the contentment it exudes - it's how little traditional labels like conservative or liberal seem to apply to the attitudes of average folks. Maybe that's another Washington vice that most people are uninterested in.

This is, after all, supposed to be a very conservative state. Yet attitudes on litmus-test issues don't really reflect a pronounced lean to the right. True, 59 percent favor prayer in public schools, but almost half think handguns should be illegal.

Two-thirds of those polled said they believe a woman should have a right to an abortion, 73 percent think government should limit how much doctors can charge, 72 percent think a national health-care policy is needed, 77 percent think the government should regulate violence on TV, 69 percent would permit doctors to prescribe marijuana and 64 percent would support doctor-assisted suicide.

Where have all the libertarians gone? This is hardly a profile of Sic-Semper-Tyrannis, Don't-Tread-on-Me, anti-government zealotry. Even when it comes to the hot-button issue of government spending and taxes, the picture Virginians paint of themselves in this poll is surprisingly moderate.

The poll found that 39 percent of Virginians think not enough is being spent to protect the environment, only 2.3 percent thought too much is being spent. On higher education, the split is similar: 31 percent think not enough is being spent, 4.5 percent think too much is being spent.

On public schools the margin is more lopsided: 52 percent think not enough is being spent, only 4 percent think too much. And even when the dreaded T-word is introduced, the reaction is not overwhelmingly negative. For example, 48 percent said they'd pay increased taxes to fund more spending on public schools while 49 percent disagreed.

It is possible that people aren't turned off by government so much as they are by the way that those in charge of the governing are doing the job. But it is also true that on many issues, those polled thought things were neither too hot nor too cold but just right. Call it the Goldilocks Syndrome.

Of course, a recession could curdle that porridge in a hurry, but for now Virginians resemble an Old Testament vision of Utopia where, after the swords are beaten into plowshares, ``they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid. . . .''

Given that mood, it's not really surprising that when asked if they want a revolution, Virginians answer: Go away. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot

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