Our civic ignorance

Published September 22, 2017

By Tom Campbell

by Tom Campbell, Producer and Moderator of NC SPIN, September 21, 2017.

Can you name the three branches of government? What are the three rights guaranteed by the First Amendment? Can you name the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court? Sadly, almost two-thirds of our citizens cannot correctly answer these questions, according to a poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

33 percent could not name any branch of government; only 26 percent could name the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. 37 percent could not name a single right protected by the First Amendment, the most important of our constitutional protections, meaning that 63 percent could not list the rights of free speech, free exercise of religion or the guarantee to assemble peaceably. A Pew Research Poll similarly revealed that only 28 percent knew the name of Chief Justice John Roberts. 53 percent said they didn’t know; some guessed Thurgood Marshall (who had been dead 17 years when the poll was taken) and others, including Harry Reid, who never has been a Justice.

Our civic ignorance is increasing at an alarming rate. In 2011, the same polls identified 38 percent who could name all three branches of government. In 1986, 43 percent knew that William Rehnquist was our chief justice. Those percentages are nothing to brag about but are indicators of the growing decline of basic knowledge about government.

We haven’t seen similar polling here in North Carolina but our guess is that if respondents were asked questions about our state government results wouldn’t vary significantly.

What does this say about our nation and its people? Our lives are impacted by government but how can we function when most of our citizens don’t have any knowledge of the basic principles of how government works? More frightening is how can we possibly make informed decisions when electing our leaders when we have so little understanding of their roles and responsibilities? Politicians can make any claims or promises they like and the electorate isn’t informed enough to discern whether or not those promises are even feasible. Further, how can we ever hold government officials accountable if we don’t even understand what they can and should do?

Jefferson is reputed to have said that the cornerstone of Democracy is an informed electorate. These poll results demonstrate we are increasingly ill informed. Interestingly, those founding fathers of our nation initially only wanted to allow property owners the right to vote because they believed them to be informed enough to make good decisions. For the first 125 years of this Republic U.S. Senators were selected by their respective state legislatures, again because it was believed these state assemblies were astute enough to make responsible choices. It wasn’t until 1913 that the 17th Amendment was ratified, allowing all qualified voters in a state to select their U.S. Senators.

Our nation and our state face many threats today, but none is more serious than our lack of understanding about the basic tenets of our government. We must do better in educating our populous. That education must begin teaching civics in our schools – not just for one year, but ongoing lessons over several years about how our government operates and our roles as citizens.

If our Republic is to continue in its present form our citizens must reverse this course of civic ignorance.

 

 

 

September 22, 2017 at 2:21 pm
Bennie Lee says:

I can't believe you are writing this.

Go preach it load and clear to the nerds that make up the school

curriculum. There are a lot of history and how our government works

that the Kiddies aren't being tough. I know my wife is retired school

teacher, my son is a teacher, or now a "vocational guidance" concealer,

my daughter-in-law is a teacher, I tried about 15 years ago and just

could not handle the disrespect from the students and the principles.

September 23, 2017 at 6:28 am
Chris Telesca says:

It's sad also that our political parties think they exist only to elect members of their party to public office, without consideration of what they were elected to do. Few act or even believe they are elected toturn their party platform into public policy - most pay lip service to their party and platform while doing the bidding of their biggest donors. Their political consultants rarely let them forget that they depend on the ever faster and deeper flow of money into campaigns, political parties and now the dark money.

Look at the $2.3 million stolen from the Wake County Department of Revenue - no one has been arrested yet!!!!! Yet look at the throngs of poor people of color that are run through the Courts every day whose crime is that they are poor and our criminal justice system uses them to make money off of them.

September 25, 2017 at 5:17 am
John Kenny says:

Your article which for the most part will fall on deaf ears is all part of the deceptive plot to utterly stupefy the general populous. Our educational system is a farce at best. I will admit that upon reading this I wasn't exactly sure of the justices, but I can easily name my rights,and the branches of govt. We have become a nation of imbeciles that no longer care for knowledge, and only are concerned with making the almighty dollar.I am truly glad that I finished school before the institution became what it is today. I also understand that my education was not up to par with that of my peers, but I think I managed quite well. Just to give some insight I graduated high school in 1998. I commend you for the effort to show our nations shortcomings intellectually, or lack of what should be common knowledge. I only hope that we can find a solution to this epidemic before it is to late.