Although the women of the United States are confined within the narrow circle of domestic life, and their situation is, in some respects, one of extreme dependence, I have nowhere seen woman occupying a loftier position; and if I were asked... in which I have spoken of so many important things done by Americans, to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply, To the superiority of their women.

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Our Next Biggest Problem, Our Elected Officials are Stupid

To follow up on the previous post, I would like to link to this World Net Daily article on a quiz that was given to over 2,000 participants. Of those participants, 164 said that they had held elected office of some form. Now they may have been dogcatchers and councilmen, but overall, they scored less than the general population. Take a look at the report here.
Twenty percent of the officials, reports Richard Brake in AOL News, thought that the ElectoralCollege was a school for "training those aspiring for higher political office."
"The fact that our elected representatives know even less about America's history and institutions than the typical citizen (who doesn't know much either) is troubling indeed," writes Brake, who is co-chairman of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's National Civic Literacy Board, "but perhaps helps explain the lack of constitutional discipline often displayed by our political class at every level of our system.
The average overall score was 49% and for those who had held elected office it was 44%. Having taken the quiz myself, I can't possibly convey how sorry a performance this is. Halfway through the thing, I almost thought it was a joke because the questions were that easy. However, toward the end it got a little more sticky. I ended up scoring an 88%, mostly because I over-thought a few of those at the end.

Take the exam yourself and see if you, too, are smarter than a politician!

3 comments:

  1. I got 79%--did some overthinking myself. Otherwise, this is stuff that should be taught in a proper civics course and everyone should know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you go back to the Reece Committee, it was found in the original minutes of the Carnegie Foundation that the most efficient way to effect change in the US was 1. War 2. Take over the State Dept. 3. Infiltrate and change the teaching of US history and civics in the schools, both at k-12 and in the colleges.

    This is the information that made Committee researcher Catherine Casey have a nervous breakdown.

    There hasn't been "civics" courses in American high schools in several decades.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I scored 84%, then linked you.
    http://mindnumbedrobot.com/2011/01/30/smarter-elected-official/3994

    Keep shining that light, TrM. God bless.

    ReplyDelete

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