26% Of Americans Are History Idiots

This is just downright embarrassing. I can understand many people not knowing some of the more esoteric historical facts, but all Americans should at least know the basic facts of our War for Independence. Sadly, too many Americans don't.

According to a 2010 Marist Poll at least 26% of the population don't even know what country we fought to get our independence. About 6% named the wrong country, and another 20% couldn't name the country. here's how it broke down by region of this country (with the percentage given being the percentage that did not know):

Northeast...............16%
West...............25%
Midwest...............26%
South...............32%

It doesn't surprise me that the South would be the place with the highest number of people who don't know our history (even the basic facts). This bastion of teabaggerism is more concerned with what they want history to be than what really happened. Here in Texas, the fringe right-wingers on the State School Board have even re-written the history books to reflect their own prejudices.

Couple this with how too many right-wing fundamentalists want to teach religion in our science classes, and it's easy to see why much of the rest of the world is starting to pass us in education.