It's difficult enough in the internet age to get kids interested in the joys of ink-on-paper books. Yet the elected official whose duty is to nurture public libraries throughout Missouri has now made it harder for teenagers to access these noble institutions.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft achieved this disturbing outcome as part of his cynical campaign to censor local librarians and purge the shelves of anything "obscene." It's a non-issue he pulled out of thin air to endear himself to right-wing voters in his quest to become governor.

St. Charles County's library system has responded with a requirement that 17-year-olds — people who are old enough to drive, join the military, register to vote, carry rifles and legally marry in Missouri — must have a parent present when they sign up for library cards.

This is lunacy. And it should spotlight the broader lunacy of Ashcroft's dark campaign against libraries.

Ashcroft, whose office controls state funding for public libraries across Missouri, this year created a new administrative rule that allows him to withhold that funding from libraries that don't jump through new regulatory hoops.

Libraries that want to keep their state funding now must adopt written policies outlining their book-selection practices. They must purge their shelves of anything that could be considered "pornographic" or "obscene" — terms so squishy they are bound to prompt self-censorship of even serious literary works. Other new rules require libraries to organize their collections by "age-appropriate" criteria and create processes by which parents can challenge libraries' policies.

It's important to note there was no library scandal or problematic trend that triggered all this. There's been no rash of pornography discovered in the reference aisle, no attempts to sexually "groom" children in the storybook section, no muzzling of parental complaints at the front desk.

Like other Republican officials' attacks on schoolteachers over non-existent issues like "critical race theory," Ashcroft has deliberately vilified an entire class of low-paid, dedicated public servants — librarians — for no reason but his own political ambition. He needed a culture-war straw man he could pummel to convince Republican primary voters to nominate him for governor. That he chose libraries, of all things, should disqualify him for that or any other office.

The entire issue is an illustration of just how far Missouri's GOP has strayed from the principles that once defined it, including concepts like protecting free speech and local control of public institutions and cutting red tape.

Ashcroft acted unilaterally on the rule changes, ignoring a public-comment period that strongly indicated the public opposed the plan. The Republican-controlled Legislature declined to conduct public hearings, choosing instead to do nothing while the state's top library official burdened libraries with bureaucratic edicts from Jefferson City. Thus have Missouri Republicans once again thumbed their noses at both public opinion and their own once-sacred principles.

The on-the-ground impact of Ashcroft's censorship campaign is now becoming real in places like St. Charles County.

As the Post-Dispatch's Ethan Colbert reports, the St. Charles City-County Library Board has adopted a series of new policies in an effort to adhere to the new rules and maintain its state funding. Among them is the rule requiring 16- and 17-year-olds to have a parent or guardian present when obtaining a library card. As if they're purchasing a deadly weapon or something.

Library CEO Jason Kuhl called the requirement "a pretty significant barrier," noting that kids that age "can come to the library on their own and get a passport, but they can't get a library card."

"It is not necessarily something that we are happy about," Kuhl said, "but we will comply."

In a world where a typical teenager has the entire internet in his pocket, the suggestion that he'd turn to a public library for titillating content is nothing short of comical.

Thanks to Jay Ashcroft, though, such teens are now less likely to turn to libraries for anything. If this is the impact of Ashcroft's stewardship of public libraries, just imagine what he could do as governor.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

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