Next month, Danforth, an ordained minister, is scheduled to address the Episcopalian House of Bishops, and he plans to urge them to take an active role in taking on “the tone” of the nation’s political existence.

“The whole tone of politics is worse now than it was then (when Schweich died),” Danforth said. “It’s that way nationally as well as in Missouri. It’s just awful. Most people I know are not happy about the state of politics.”

Part of the problem, Danforth says, is that the candidates and their consultants believe they only have to talk to a sliver of the voting population during party primaries, and their message has next to nothing to do with issues of policy that should matter to the state.

“Building roads, improving education, creating jobs,” Danforth rattles off. “That’s all so much piffle.”

Instead, every message seems to be about guns, abortion and terrorism.

“I’ve never seen a campaign like this one,” he says of the GOP primary for governor. “It doesn’t present people with anything that has to do with the future of our state. Anything!”