Voters have work to do in the fall elections

n a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.” Over the centuries, versions of this warning have been attributed to a diverse lineup of luminaries, including Shakespeare, Alexis de Tocqueville and Thomas Jefferson.

A similar caution — whose origin is not in dispute — was delivered by Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Approaching Franklin outside Independence Hall, a woman asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Without hesitation, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The Founders understood the health — even the survivability — of this new form of government depended on citizens willing to educate themselves continually on politics and government, and be involved in the civic arena.

Today, almost everyone laments the government and the politics we’ve given ourselves. Since the advent of modern opinion polling in the 1930s, public trust in government hovers near all-time lows.

In 2017, the Pew Research Center reported that only 18 percent of Americans trust the national government to do what is right “just about always” (3 percent) or “most of the time” (15 percent). Public trust in state governments also has been on the decline.

Playing to this dissatisfaction, candidates and their handlers conduct campaigns designed to reinforce distrust. Each election cycle delivers ever more negative, misleading and untruthful advertising, especially on television.

There’s no better illustration of this destructive trend than the hotly contested battle for Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, the preliminary round of which will be decided in Tuesday’s special election. The campaigns of Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O’Connor (whom The Dispatch has endorsed) have turned two decent, well-regarded individuals into untrustworthy miscreants.

And if you like them apples, just wait for the fall campaigns. Given the stakes in the November election, the current 12th District mud fight just might look tidy compared to what’s in store for September and October.

That’s because the Nov. 6 election offers Ohioans a Halley’s Comet-like rarity — a statewide ballot