Crappy voters. Seriously. Perri Nelson referred recently to an online civics quiz that’s simply an online form of the quiz given to a random sampling of Americans last Spring. Here’s the report card:
Now, folks, having taken the quiz myself and having scored considerably better than the average, I’m prepared to say that the ONLY reasons for any citizens of these (dis)United States to fail this lil quiz are laziness, wilfull stupidity or both. Seriously. And the fact that,
Among the 2,508 respondents, 164 say they have been elected to a government office at least once. This sub-sample of officeholders yields a startling result: elected officials score lower than the general public. Those who have held elective office earn an average score of 44% on the civic literacy test, which is five percentage points lower than the average score of 49% for those who have never been elected... 1[emphasis added]
…leads me to assert that holders of political office who can’t do better than that should be put out of our misery forever. But that can only be accomplished by voters who know which end of a boot to pour piss out of… and even then they’d probably have to buy a clue to know they’d wet themselves, given the performance on this lil survey, and given the economy nowadays, I doubt any of ’em would spend the money on a cluebat to hit themselves over the head with.
(Am I livid? Absolutely. NO ONE who fails such a simple exam ought to be let within a mile of a voting booth, let alone be allowed to “serve” as an elected [addendum: or even UNelected] official in ANY capacity.)
Look, people, it’s just a silly little multiple choice quiz that’s not even as detailed as a citizenship exam for someone from another country seeking citizenship in this country, and yet 71% of the survey participants couldn’t pass the thing even with an extremely lenient 60% passing grade!
*feh* If that’s all Americans know about their own country then we deserve to be tossed in the ash heap of history. “It was a noble experiment, but The People proved they didn’t deserve the liberties generations of their forefathers bled and died to give them. Tough. Next?”
Lazy-assed bums. Don’t tell me the education system failed them. The “education system” sucks dead bunnies through a straw, slowly, laboriously and poorly, but only lazy-assed bums would be satisfied to KNOW NOTHING about their country’s history and forms of civil government, or worse, be satisfied with the horse manure illiterate boobs who “teach” civics and history in our schools dump in the black holes that are their vacuous heads.
And historical literacy in more than just American history and government is critical for voters nowadays given the outright lies of Mass Media Podpeople and politicians on issues of importance. One of the most serious issues facing our society today is the attempt to wreck (even further) our economy and way of life via the lie of anthropogenic global warming/climate change. One of the central arguments of the warmists/changists is made by Michael Mann’s “hockey stick” graph showing the latter 20th Century to be the warmest period in more than a thousand years. Heck, simple historical literacy is all it would take to have Mann and his ilk run out of town on a rail (after a good tarring and feathering)–no need for elaborate mathematical analyses proving Mann cooked the books (although that has been done). Why? Just ask Mann and his disciples why, if the latter part of the 20th Century was the hottest in 1,000 years, didn’t Greenland have as big a net export of dairy products then as it did during the Medieval Climate Optimum from 800-1300 AD, when temperatures were higher than at ANY time during the 20th Century? (Apparently, Mann just couldn’t be bothered to do his homework–or else his math skills are considerably worse than one might imagine. 20th Century-14th Century is 600 years, Mike, not 1,000.)
OK, maybe even if folks knew that Leif Erikson Erik the Red (that’s a persistent braine pharte of mine) didn’t scam folks into moving to a bitterly cold Greenland (because it really WAS warm and green–dairy exports, remember? From farms that are NOW under glacial ice… ) that wouldn’t have helped combat Mann’s lies. They’d have to be numerate enough to be able to do simple subtraction.
So, yes, either we begin telling the illiterate boobs that are our fellow voters that they ARE illiterate boobs (and then do everything in our power to convert them to minimal historical literacy) or we will fall as a nation.
Note well the quote in the header of this blog:
“In a democracy (”rule by mob”), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”-third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axiom
That’s just one of the reasons that, historically, democracies fail (and one of the reasons the Founders designed our federal government to NOT be a democracy!). As this country regresses ever more steadily into democratic rule, we begin to see the results of democraticization (mob rule): illiterate, lazy-assed boobs decide how the country will go.
Down the toilet.
Trackposted to Nuke’s, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Pink Flamingo, Woman Honor Thyself, Democrat=Socialist, Adam’s Blog, Right Voices, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
yay I actually found u out of hundreds of spammers..lol..ty for the linky luv!
One of the other findings in the same study… people that use “passive” media generally do more poorly than people that use “interactive” media. Maybe we should make people turn of the television and video games and start reading blogs.
Even better, maybe we should require everyone to learn a bit of mathematics, world history, and logic before they can obtain a license to vote. Add to that a few years of “voting” experience and some real (as opposed to imaginary ala “Darcy Burner”) economics education before they’re allowed to run for any public office and we might see things change.
Most people wouldn’t bother with getting the “voters license” anyway. They’d rather watch Britney bare herself.
“[L]icense to vote”–would that we could. Neal Boortz’s idea is to have a short civics quiz, then folks are handed ballots based on the results. Don’t pass? You still get to vote, but your “special” vote goes in the ballot box scheduled for the shredder…
I could live with that.
If you deny anyone their right to vote based on what they do not know it is not much of a leap to impose other restrictions to the point where the selected remedy becomes more of a problem than what it was intended to solve.
If the issue is expanded beyond civics to literacy in general as has been suggested there are plenty of targets which must accept the blame for this problem. Certainly those in charge of the institutions responsible for the process of education are easy prey but of course it always comes full circle to the primary offenders which rarely receive adequate criticism. Each individual has a responsibility to hold up their end if they expect others to respect their entitlement to available rights.
And since we all know that upon being born there is little we can do by ourselves we must rely on others, usually family, to assist and guide us to a point whereby we can operate successfully within society. But a family failure does not excuse any individual from doing their part to meet some minimum standard in their ability to participate and contribute to the society from which they expect the aformentioned rights.
The problem as I see it is an old enemy. Apathy is the cause and many aspects of modern living are to blame for it being contagious. Finding the cure or antidote is the task.
It is difficult to correct such inadequacies when dealing with the herd mentality that has been developed by the pursuit of feel good endeavors that produce phrases like he do dies with the most toys wins.
But I submit the problem stems from the demise of core values and principles about which many calling themselves conservatives speak. Not the least of which is typically referred to as family values. Which in turn can be simplified to the expression of doing what is right.
As a society we once were more concerned about how we were viewed as families and individuals and that concern led to behavior devoted to assuring we acted in ways that reflected well upon ourselves. It was viewed as an asset to respect others and be respected. That may have caused us to do the right thing more often that we do now.
I still think folks who are on the dole should not be permitted to vote until at least one year after they are self sufficient.
“If you deny anyone their right to vote based on what they do not know it is not much of a leap to impose other restrictions to the point where the selected remedy becomes more of a problem than what it was intended to solve.”
I really don’t see a problem with requiring folks to know the basics of their government and at least American history in order to vote. We impose such requirements on those from other lands seeking citizenship here. Why ought they to have a steeper requirement for citizenship than some dumbass who was born here but is too uncaring and lazy to learn a few simple facts?
I’ll grant you the “demise of core values” but cannot lay that demise entirely at the feet of the (mis)education establishment or even the political establishment. It is the fault of self-lobotomized lazy-assed lotus-eaters who make themselves sheeple, as much as it is the fault of those who have promoted a democracy that flies in the face of the Founders’ principles of government, even when those promoting mob rule have done so for supposedly idealistic reasons.
Whenever I hear such balderdash as “the wisdom of the people” I have to laugh (or shoot something). Wisdom of the people who select bobbleheaded, talentless celebrities for adulation? Wisdom of the people who cannot or will not allow themselves to admit that our current economic woes are as much the result of their own greed, laziness and petty impatience as the fault of the government the “wisdom of the people” elected to make the mess (along with greedy, stupid Wall Streeters, etc.)? Wisdom of the people who let the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind pour poison into their empty noggins and then go vote note knowing the slightest thing about their government’s priciples or history, nor the actual positions and records of the people for whom they are casting their vote?
*feh*
I still think Neal Boortz’s idea the most elegant: shred the votes of those who cannot pass a simple civics exam. Let me make up the questions, and we’d reduce the idiots voting by 90%.
Or heck, we could go back to the criteria most of the States had when the Constitution was signed: property owners–and NOT “mortgage owners”–who thereby demonstrated that they had a stake in good governance. Think that one through. It’d take folks living on the government dole off the roles.
I’d go even further, were I in a position to do so. I’d deny ALL federal government employees save the military (for reasons Heinlein might understand and even approve of :-)) the franchise. (I’d even consider State government employees’ removal from voting rolls a Good Thing.)
Would I revert to male-only voting qualifications? Nah. I’ve met a few women more qualified to vote than I am–at least, I’m pretty sure Margaret Chase Smith was more qualified to vote than I. *heh* (And actually, I’ve also met a few men–fewer than women, though–who’re more qualified to vote than I am :-))
Get right down to it, we may have a window of opportunity here to raise the operative itelligence of the electorate, given
1. the way the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind has revealed itself as a collective of blatantly self-serving liars over the course of the last couple of years
2. the growing awareness (which everyone with more than two brain cells to rub together ought to be shouting from the rooftops) that it was/is our own dear “feddle gummint’s” meddling that is the prime mover behind this nation’s current economic woes
3. a growing disenchantment with pols, even to the point that some of the bloom is off the Obamassiah’s rose
If those who do have more than two active brain cells to rub together make a point of rubbing these facts in to everyone we know and meet, perhaps, just a wee teeneintsy maybe, the tide of civic stupidity can be turned.
Big maybe. Don’t bet the farm on it, though. Never underestimate the power of mass stupidity. Oh, and read José Ortega y Gasset’s 1930 “Revolt of the Masses”. Prophetic. The results of democracy, deconstructed, analyzed, detailed. Makes clear why the Founders viewed democracy with such a jaundiced eye.
Oh, and Stanford, while general literacy wasn’t mentioned until your comment, I’d be happy to include it as a precondition to voting. Right there, that’d exclude around 70% of recent college graduates. Yep. 2005 survey of (then) recent college grads: 69%+ couldn’t read the instructions for taking a prescription drug and tell ya what it said or an editorial (supposedly written on an 8th grade level) and show they understood it.
And these people are allowed–no! encouraged!–to vote!
TF, I think you can tell I’d vote for that. 🙂
If you are a military veteran and cannot pass the test, can you vote under your criteria?
Stanford,
Of course not. Any military vet who can’t pass a simple civics exam similar to that which I linked to shouldn’t have been able to earn an honorable discharge, anyway, for having been a lazy-assed slacker.