When Marylanders speak their minds these days, their collective voice talks of worry and blame -- worry for an economy that has pushed them out of work or to the edge of their paychecks, and blame for every institution of power in sight, whether it's Congress, banks, big business or labor.
Those are the results of The Sun Poll of 1,210 Maryland registered voters, taken Feb. 10-15. The numbers show a population that is disillusioned, seeing government as a tool of the wealthy at the expense of the poor and the middle class.
People are also pessimistic, doubting that Congress and the president can find a long-term remedy for the economy.
Yet traces of idealism remain. Those polled indicated a willingness to help the homeless and poor despite their wariness of government welfare programs.
Marylanders still yearn for any presidential candidate who might have a master plan. As the national campaign lurches toward the state for the March 3 primary election, people say they not only want someone who can fix the economy but who will also tell them the cold, hard truth.
"All of these politicians, they get on there and offer you a storybook ending: 'If you vote for me I'll solve your problems.' " said Denise Fuller, 43, of Harford County, "And time after time these people get re-elected, and we just get deeper in the hole.
"I'd like to hear someone admit, 'Look, I don't have all the answers,' or even be a little novel and have some working solutions. They always give you these catch phrases and buzzwords.
"I'd just like to say to some of them, 'Well, how are you going to do this?' "
Like 69 percent of those polled, Mrs. Fuller cited the economy as the nation's most troubling problem. Nothing else was even close. The economy is also the theme of the message people would most like to tell to the field of presidential candidates.
"People are living from paycheck to paycheck," said Mrs. Fuller, who has gone back to school to earn a college degree so she can earn a better living for her family of four. "More and more people are slipping from the middle class into the working poor, and the working poor are slipping into welfare. And I don't see how people on welfare make it at all."
Such sentiments are typical in a state that has been one of the hardest hit by the recession -- 70,000 more people were out of work in December than four years earlier.
During the next nine days Maryland will get a national forum for its frustration as presidential candidates troop in and out with their promises and platforms.
Vocal discontent
Though the campaign is young, the candidates are already used to such discontent, having just heard the same messages in New Hampshire, which has been suffering even more than Maryland.
New Hampshire voters lashed out at all parts of the power structure, and the poll indicates that Marylanders are doing the same, declaring open season on every culprit offered up for recrimination. Congress was at the top of the hit list, judged to be "very much" to blame by 51 percent, and at least somewhat to blame by 95 percent.
President Bush came out better, but hardly unscathed. About 30 percent cited him as very much at fault, while 86 percent said he was at least somewhat to blame.
Banks and business executives did about as badly as the president, and the criticisms of them echoed the themes cited about members of Congress. They have grown aloof and out of control, voters complain, enriching themselves while paying only passing attention to the misery of the populace below.
Yolanda Chrzanowski, 45, a federal employee from Anne Arundel County, said of the banks, "They are just robber barons. I think it's just outrageous Congress deregulated banking the way they did. You don't want Big Brother Washington, but you need some things to keep people in line."
As for the corporate world, her disgust is symbolized by the new Buick she bought in 1985. Three months later it needed a major repair. Five years after that, "it was falling apart."
Two years ago she bought a used Japanese car, "and it's wonderful."
"The executives of these companies make me want to throw up," she said. "They're making $300,000 in bonuses, and they're laying people off -- a company that's losing money for five years in a row."
Marylanders also blame labor unions for their plight, but less so than business, with 23 percent citing unions as very much to blame and 72 percent as at least somewhat to blame.
Widespread alienation
One fallout from this widespread finger-pointing is, for many, an alienation from the government they voted into office. About 52 percent of the poll respondents said they "strongly agreed" that most elected officials are out of touch with the problems of people like them, and 82 percent at least somewhat agreed.
People haven't always felt this way about their government, many said when interviewed, and references to a past idealism seemed particularly strong in conversations with "baby boomers."
Mrs. Fuller recalled how nearly three decades ago she and her classmates sometimes left school early to get home in time to watch the televised press conference of President John F. Kennedy.
Sure, she said, she's heard all the revelations since then of Mr. Kennedy's marital infidelity, but in those days, "he did a lot to get my generation interested in government. . . . You felt like you could make a difference. Everybody was going to join the Peace Corps, and everybody was going to join VISTA. When he said, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,' everyone was excited."
But 20 years later the prevalent government appeal to the public had become, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" Nowadays, as Mrs. Fuller's family struggles to pay for groceries and worries about hanging on to jobs, she hears a message that is colder still, and more abrupt.
"All you hear is a 20-second sound bite; then they go into a back room and do whatever they were going to do anyway," she said. "It's like they're dying to get into office; then once they do they forget what the people want."
Some of those polled spoke of a growing resignation, either on their own part of that of their friends, with the foibles of the system.
Donna Martinez Jones, 28, who has worriedly watched the sales her small advertising business in Baltimore drop to practically nothing, said, "Most of my friends say they don't even want to vote because they're disenchanted. It's kind of like people are mixed up right now because things are so uncertain."
She, too, is unsettled. Her eight-year-old business once hired out contract work to as many as 30 people. Now she can handle the work load with help from three family members.
But she has not lost hope. "Even in the midst of all the uncertainty, I'm still working on that American dream of securing a business."
Mrs. Fuller also tries to stay confident. But she, too, sees the creeping apathy, particularly among the friends of her son, Dennis, who is 19, the age when she was once so fired up about government service. "A lot of them haven't even registered to vote. You ask them about it, and they say, 'You turn one person out of office and put another person in and he's just as bad.'
"I know a lot of people who don't vote anymore," she said, "and who don't watch the news anymore. They just really have given up. I'm still interested, I'm still voting, I'm still trying, but it's a lot harder."
Another clue to such apathy can be found in the answer to the poll question asking which group is served most by government policies. About 74 percent said the rich, while 12 percent said the poor. Only 5 percent cited the middle class.
"It's how the rich get richer," Mrs. Fuller said. "They have their lawyers; they have their tax shelters. They know their way around the system. They know which palms to grease, and they know the lobbyists to see in Washington and Annapolis."
When voters were asked which group is at the greatest 'f disadvantage because of government policies, 47 percent said the middle class and 44 percent said the poor.
"I just don't think the middle class and the poor in this country stand a chance of getting ahead," Mrs. Chrzanowski said.
She cited herself as an example -- a single parent who has raised two sons while food prices have crept upward and the monthly rent bill has gone up $200 over the past 10 years. She switched from regular health insurance to a health maintenance organization, trading greater choice for a smaller cost. "I've been getting pay raises," she said, "but it seems like I've been sliding back."
With all these hard feelings, perhaps it's not surprising that 62 percent of those polled think that the president and Congress won't be able to come up with a long-term solution for the economy.
Harry Strothers, 66, of Montgomery County, explained his pessimism by comparing the behavior of the executive and legislative branches to that of irresponsible parents.
"When children clamor for immediate gratification," he said, "the parents have got to do what's better for them instead of giving in to everything they ask for. They [in government] are responding, but they're responding to what people clamor for, not to what is needed."
What to do
When it comes to how the government should spend its money, at least one area seems to have widespread support. About 83 percent at least somewhat agreed that the government should guarantee medical coverage to those who can't afford it, while 52 percent strongly agreed.
And even though people were split on their opinions of social welfare programs, they indicated a willingness to help the poor and homeless.
Ms. Chrzanowski can understand the ambivalence. Standing in a checkout line the other day, she watched a woman plunk down a couple of overpriced items at the register.
She was already pondering this wastefulness when the woman "pulled out some food stamps, and I almost had a fit. I almost said, 'Hey, that's my money you're spending.'
"But the problem is, when they [in government] tighten those laws, they don't catch the people who need to be caught. They just knock off some poor person who really needs it."
What one thing troubles you the most about the country?
SUNPOLL
Economy 49%
Unemployment 19%
Other 9%
Crime/ drugs 4%
Government/ leadership 4%
Poverty/ homelessness 4%
Don't know 3%
Education 3%
Foreigners 3%
Values 2%
Poll results
L
Whom voters blame "very much" for the state of the economy
(Voters can pick more than one.)
President Bush 30%
Congress 51%
Banks/financial institutions 35%
Business executives 30%
Foreign competitors 29%
American workers 7%
Labor unions 23%
Bush job rating
February 1992
October 1990
Excellent/ good
34%
51%
Fair/ poor
64%
48%
Are you better or worse off financially than a year ago?
Better off
11%
Worse off
31%
About the same
57%
Don't know
1%
Do you expect to be better or worse off financially a year from now?
Better off
19%
Worse off
20%
About the same
52%
Don't know
9%
Do you give money to homeless people on the street?
Frequently
14%
Sometimes
29%
Never
19%
Don't see homeless people on the street
38%
The Sun Poll was conducted by KPC Research of Charlotte, N.C. Results are based on telephone interviews Feb. 10-15 with 1,210 randomly selected registered Maryland voters. Those quoted agreed to be interviewed by reporters. Results are weighted by party and county to make the sample better reflect the electorate. The margin of sampling error for this poll at a 95 percent confidence level is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for the entire sample. This means that in 19 cases out of 20, samples such as this would differ by fewer than 2.8 percentage points from the results obtained from interviews with all registered voters in Maryland. The margin of error for groups within the sample would be larger because results are based on fewer interviews. In addition to sampling error, opinion surveys are subject to other forms of error. For example, people who declined to be interviewed, or who could not be reached, might have different opinions from those who were interviewed.