Utah's voter ignorance

Quick — name your representative in the Utah House. How about the Senate?

If you don't know, you are in good company. A poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV found that only about a third of Utahns could answer the question. And yet, a third said it was time for someone new to be elected. Whether those are the same third or not isn't known, but it is highly doubtful.

The poll, published in this newspaper on Monday, highlights the difficulty politicians on state and local levels have connecting with constituents. A legislative race often doesn't generate the money needed for mass advertising. And yet voters, while generally ignorant of how their own representatives are doing, have a gnawing sense that taxes are too high or money is being misspent and that changes are needed. It's a sorry commentary on how modern Americans treat their democratic legacy.

Would Abraham Lincoln have delivered such a stirring address at Gettysburg if his closing line had been about preserving government of the ignorant, by the ignorant and for the ignorant?

It's easy to blame lawmakers and their arrogance for this, but in a free land government is a two-way street. Yes, lawmakers alienate voters when they refuse to pass ethics reforms. But the Utahns who consistently tell newspaper pollsters that they wish lawmakers would do so could apply enough pressure to get their way if they would get involved.

Elected officials become less concerned about abuses when they feel no one is paying attention. Voters, meanwhile, seldom know about things to which they would object until too late. Then they complain about feelings of powerlessness.

The good news is that Utah's economy is booming and its jobless rate is low. This condition often fosters political apathy, as people find little reason to mobilize for change. The bad news, of course, is that representative government cannot long survive if the links between the people and their representatives disappear.

Tonight offers a perfect opportunity to end this destructive trend. Party caucuses, also known as mass meetings, are taking place throughout the state. They are open to all comers. The poll found that only 19 percent are very likely to attend. Make it a point to raise that percentage.

Who knows? You might even get to know the people who represent you.