What Americans Really Believe

Political observer Lloyd G. Pearcy has given up on media opinion polls as being partisan. Instead, he says, what citizens want isn’t so different today from 200 years ago

Before there were public opinion polls, focus groups, exit interviews and political analysts, there was common sense. There still is! But common sense has been pre-empted by spin artists, media analysts and special interest crusaders who seek to manipulate even the measuring of political attitudes for partisan advantage.

On the improbable chance that there are politicians who desire to know what the American people really think, as distinguished from how their views can be manipulated, I offer the following verities. They are proudly unscientific and flow from a deliberately miniscule sampling. They have not changed for more than 200 years and they likely will not change for another 200, because they represent the bedrock American political psyche. They are offered on a “take it for your advantage” or “ignore it at your peril” basis:

  •  Americans are deeply committed to democratic institutions. The fact that nearly half of us do not vote is evidence not of apathy but of disillusionment with the erosion of integrity in government;
  • Americans want government that is balanced. This instinctive quest for balance is not momentary but is manifested in long-term course corrections. We sense that one party has been in power too long or that one ideology has swung too far to the left or right. So the same citizen will vote Democrat in one election and Republican in another; for a liberal agenda in one era and conservative in another; for both liberal and conservative candidates in the same election! If we feel both parties are taking us for granted about 20% of us will vote for an independent candidate or minor party to send a message to the establishment. The mindset underlying all these constellations of voting patterns is the ongoing prescription of long-term balance in government.
  • There will never be permanent consensus among us for one party or ideology. Both liberal and conservative ideologues mistakenly assume that with enough outreach the majority of Americans can be permanently persuaded to their cause. They are wrong! Americans fervently trust the two party system because of our deeply held belief in competition as the best crucible for discovering truth and preserving virtue.
  • Americans know that Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives are profoundly different in their approaches to government. Those who profess that all candidates sound alike or both parties govern alike are advertising their ignorance. We should celebrate them as the ego-starved, intellectually challenged reprobates they are and censure them. We should neither withhold the attention they so desperately seek nor bestow agreement that is so manifestly unwarranted.
  • There is an unspoken contract between the American people and their institutions of government. Mr., Mrs. and Ms. America are willing, even eager, to invest money, time, mental energy and emotion in the electoral process every two years. They continue their attentiveness for a short while even after the election to assess whether the newly seated trustees of democracy are competent. Once convinced that the hands steering the ship of state are steady, the people return their full attention to running their own lives. Having thus settled back into their personal routine, they abhor anything that resurrects electoral decisions already made. If at mid-term they are forced to reassess their elected leaders they feel betrayed.

Our republican government depends for its survival on electing candidates of integrity representing both parties and all ideological landscapes. But this is not the pseudo-integrity as re-defined by campaign strategists and special interest charlatans. It is more than a minimal compliance with law. Rather, it is the traditional integrity of uncompromising personal and intellectual honesty. Some but not all elected officials are personally honest. Almost none are intellectually honest, especially of late.

Government of, by and for the people has never occurred without sacrifice, nor will it ever. It must be nurtured. We can nurture it either by constant, unrelenting vigilence to the mandates of citizenship or by the only alternative, the occasional spilling of blood. In either case, freedom is not free!

Lloyd G. Pearcy has practiced law in Denver for more than 40 years and taught law for 30 years. He is a former newspaper reporter and editor. He can be contacted at lgpearcy@comcast.net