RALEIGH — At a recent lunch with a friend in Salisbury, I happened to be downstairs at a restaurant where gubernatorial candidate Patrick Ballantine was upstairs introducing himself to a gathering of prominent Rowan County Republicans. After the meeting, I got a chance to visit with some of the attendees.
Two of them had a lot to say about politics in general and the governor’s race in particular, though most was off the record. But one common denominator in both of their reactions stood out: until that day, they told me, they did not know who Patrick Ballantine was.
This isn’t meant to be a reflection on Ballantine, a 10-year veteran of the state senate from Wilmington and currently the minority leader in the chamber. He’s about as well known as anyone else would be in his position, if not more so. The point is that most North Carolinians, even those who are politically active, do not follow the legislature closely enough to know many of the players — other than, perhaps, their own representative or senator.
Nor is this lack of recognition limited to state officials. A recent poll reported in the Washington weekly The Hill, 41 percent of Americans did not recognize the name of Dennis Hastert, the current speaker of the U.S. House and third-in-line to the presidency. About the same percentage did not know Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader from California.
Perhaps some would view this as an opportunity to deliver a finger-wagging civics lecture about how irresponsible people are and how our representative government is doomed. I don’t. Sure, I’d like voters to be better informed, and I like to think that our efforts at Carolina Journal and the John Locke Foundation are improving the situation a bit. But it’s important to keep things in perspective. For most voters, the cost of acquiring political knowledge, at least as it is currently delivered, is higher than the value they place on it. Consequently, they engage in “rational ignorance.” They choose to focus their attention on acquiring knowledge that they believe will be more useful in everyday life. A tradeoff is inevitable.
Interest in politics can certainly change, and there are surely ways for politicians and activists to communicate more effectively their views and agendas. But the public’s priorities aren’t all that malleable. The best thing for politicians to do is to keep a sense of humility. Just because their word is, quite literally, law on Capitol Hill or within the environs of Raleigh’s Jones Street doesn’t mean they should expect great public notoriety or deference.
Getting into politics is a little like joining a monastic order. (No snickering; remember, I said only a “little like.”) Those who live in the cozy cloister of politics shouldn’t expect everyone else automatically to recognize and respect their ordination. Much missionary work is required.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.