More Americans have graduated high school and attended and graduated two and four year programs at colleges and universities, and yet high levels of ignorance persist in the most advanced nation in the world, or are we?
Examples abound:
40 percent of Americans are not even aware of the signature achievement of the Obama Presidency, what the critics have labeled “ObamaCare”! And some think the Congress repealed it, and others think the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional!
21 percent believe a UFO landed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, and the government has covered it up!
14 percent believe in a monster called Big Foot, that it really exists!
65 percent cannot name even one Supreme Court Justice, not even the Chief Justice, when there are constant references to the “Roberts Court” in the news media!
30 percent cannot name who the Vice President of the United States is, and this has been shown on David Letterman many times!
35 percent do not know which century the American Revolution occurred in, and many cannot name who we fought in the Revolution!
6 percent do not know when Independence Day is, cannot find it on the calendar.
Many Americans cannot find any state of the Union on a geography map, or name the continents!
Many do not know who American fought in World War II, or point out where Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan are on the map, despite the fact that many Americans died in these wars.
Many Americans would be unable to pass the basic citizenship test all immigrants must pass, even though we are all insistent that they must know information many of our citizens born here do NOT know!
And many Americans persist in believing that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and think that Medicare is not a government program, when they say they do not want the government engaged in health care!
Many Americans do not know who their own Congressman or Senators are, and have no clue or understanding of the Constitution or Bill of Rights!
This is all very sad and disturbing, and makes one wonder about the “will of the people”, and their ability to make judgments about what American domestic or foreign policy should be!
Too add insult to injury 42% of Americans are unaware Obamacare is Law! http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/obamacare-poll-finds-42-of-americans-unaware-its-law/
I agree that somewhere along the line education got screwed up in this country. And there seems to be a trend worldwide. I don’t if its because education systems all over have been suffered from a relaxing of standards, or people are just not interested in learning or knowing about current events, much less about history.
It’s a very sad and frustrating situation.
Juan,
And you are giving this to represent the ignorance to the Tea Party / Reactionary Right? Those who get their talking points from Blow Hard Radio and Fox Propaganda?
This 40% would be a good estimate for these demographics.
Good Job.
Because of these ignorant people, we have these Tea Party extremists in Congress.
Yes Princess Leia,
This is why the Republican Party is looking to run more to slightly right of the center candidates against these wing nuts in the primary.
They are a very big embarrassment to the Party and are to be purged.
Hello Professor,
I thought I would pass on my latest posting on my own site titled:
“Tea Party activists are not Republicans!”
Writing from the perspective of being a life long Republican, I thought I would pass on some facts on the Tea Party and the disaster they have provided to the party.
1. As the Tea Party activists are vehemently anti-Democratic, do not be mistaken, they are not Republicans either.
Even though the Tea Party activists will vote the Republicans ticket, they are also surprisingly negative about the party they are voting for! When asked if they considered themselves more Republican or more a Tea Party member, more than three-quarters chose Tea Party. Given this outlook it is not surprising that the activists also rate the party they vote for very poorly.
2. Tea Party activists aren’t nearly as concerned about winning.
They are significantly more concerned with ideological purity than with political pragmatism. In other words, the Tea Party cares more about what nominees believe than whether they can win and compromising on politics means compromising on principle. I like to refer to this as “The Political Faith.”
The findings help explain what’s happened in so many GOP primary races. Both nationally and at the state level, moderate GOP officeholders found themselves with primary challengers. The Tea Party has helped propel several upstart candidacies, like Christine O’Donnell’s infamous effort to win Delaware’s Senate seat or more recently, Richard Mourdock’s successful challenge to sitting Senator Dick Lugar. In both of those cases, and several others, the Tea Party candidate has proved too extreme for the general election and lost. That is why there are many within the Party are today concerned with this unelectable new direction.
3. Any attempt to bridge the gap between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party are doomed to fail.
The problem facing the Republican Party today is to keep the Tea Party in the fold while shifting things more to the center. After the dismal GOP performance in the 2012 elections, establishment figures began pushing back against the Tea Party.
Famous consultant Karl Rove announced a new political action committee designed to challenge extreme GOP candidates with more marketable ones. The national party even put out a report after the 2012 losses that pushed for more pragmatic candidates that could have a broader appeal but the gap between the two groups is huge.
Simply put, the GOP has been way too reliant on the Tea Party base but the Tea Party doesn’t care about the GOP or its fate. The Tea Party only cares about moving the political conversation increasingly towards the extreme, reactionary right of the Political Spectrum.
Great article, Engineer of Knowledge! Thanks for the contribution! 🙂
The pleasure was mine Professor.
Engineer…you have your own blog? I didn’t know that. 🙂
What is it called so I can become one of your followers!
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As for the high level of Stupid that seems to have swallowed up half the country, I bring my usual:
The Republican party encourges and celebtates ignorance. I’ve nevrr seen anything like it!
The party has absolutely gone insane!
Maggie, you are precisely on target, once again! 🙂