Hal Rothman laments the apathetic attitude that Nevadans maintain for government and the low expectations that they have for their elected officials

Sunday, March 19, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

Nevada's politics would embarrass any self-respecting banana republic, and the news this past week only confirms what we all know: the many fine people in Nevada politics hide a wide and shameless category who use elected office to feather their own nests.

Clark County Recorder Fran Deane is only the latest. With the G-Sting trials of Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey beginning, Kathy Augustine, the impeached state controller, claiming vindication and planning to run for higher office, and the array of ethics complaints of all kinds against all kinds of politicians, I want to know why we put up with this. Don't these people have the decency to resign?

Our problem is part apathy and part low expectations. In Nevada, the veneer of civilization is stripped off and everybody's motives are crystal clear. We all know what that motivation is. Money matters in Las Vegas and Nevada, and that is fine in business. It works less well in politics.

Apathy is a driving force in Nevada politics. Most people simply do not care. As a result, they do not invest themselves in the political process as readily. For political leaders, this poses a dilemma. What can you do when half your district was not there the last time you ran for office?

People are engaged by issues close to home. Roads and schools bring newcomers out in droves, but airplanes flying over the neighborhood really gets them riled up. They are afraid that government is out to do them in.

Taxes are the other thing that brings the public to the ballot box. Everybody wants services, but they always want someone else to pay for them. This is an easy sell for unscrupulous politicians who want to get elected and do not care what they say to get into office. There are genuine critics of the tax structure out there - Bob Beers leading the pack - but they are in the minority.

Our expectations of political leaders are unbelievably low. Prospective jurors for the G-String trial expressed outright contempt for local political officials. From the point of view of a randomly selected group of Clark County residents, politicians were even more venal than lawyers.

The parochial expectations of the public are an enormous part of the reason why government fails us. In our time, people are fundamentally self-interested and they refuse to see beyond their own needs.

Pandering to a constituency is easy. All you have to do is tell them what they want to hear - and hope that they do not remember what you promised them six months later. Most of the time, this works. The public does not hold elected officials accountable for their promises and often not even for their behavior.

We do not expect much out of political leaders because Nevada was not set up for government to be an effective entity. In the 1960s a book called "The Great Rotten Borough" laid bare the history of Nevada politics. It is frightening that we have changed so little even as the stakes here have risen and the state has been transformed from a bit player in the United States to a central position in culture and economics.

There are plenty of good and decent people in Nevada politics, but by implication, the sleaze factor drags down the good ones. Thomas Jefferson once said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." In Nevada, we have simply not been vigilant enough. We have not insisted on our "liberty," as Jefferson would have seen it, nor have we demanded responsive government.

On the slate this year, the good candidates - the ones who believe in something, whether I agree with it or not, and the ones who see government as an instrument of the people - may very well outnumber the sleazeballs. It is up to the people to make sure that our elected leaders reflect our hopes and not our fears.

If we are lucky, we will get better government, but only if the public insists and forcefully implements that demand. It will help if the public pays more attention, gets beyond knee-jerk reactions, and demands elected officials who believe in something other than lining their own pockets. It will not be easy, but we can get there. And we will have a better Nevada when we do.