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Americans United in Civic Ignorance, Politicians Worse

Every once in a while a report comes out about how ignorant Americans are in civics, politics, American history and economics. This one seems to indicate that American ignorance cuts across all demographics:

"'Young Americans failed, but so did the elderly,' said Bunting. "'Men and women, rich and poor, liberals and conservatives, Republican and Democratic, white, black, yellow and brown – all were united in their inability to master the basic features of America's constitutional form of government.'"

But this surprised even me:

"Seventy-nine (79) percent of elected officeholders did not know that the Bill of Rights expressly forbids the government establishment of an official religion."

It's a good thing we have a democratic system, where ignorant voters can vote for even more ignorant officials.

Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 9:01 PM | Comments (1) | Return

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