Public Has An Amazing Level Of Ignorance About Politics

Thomas Jefferson said, "No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect toward supporting free and good government." In other words, he believed an educated population was necessary for the survival of a democratic government such as the one our Founding Fathers established.

Unfortunately, I think Jefferson's confidence would be shattered if he knew just how ignorant the American public is about politics, and the political system they live under.

I wrote a post a little over a week ago that showed a significant portion of the American people couldn't even tell you which political party controls the U.S. Senate and House. Now I've learned of a survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (done between July 8th and 14th of a random national sample of 1,416 adults, with a margin of error of 3.06 points) may well have been too generous regarding the knowledge of Americans about their government.

The Annenberg survey showed that only 38% of the public knows that Republicans control the House of Representatives and Democrats control the Senate. That would be amazing enough, but its only the tip of the ignorance iceberg. It turns out that only 36% of the public could name all three branches of government, only 27% knew it takes a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto, and less than half (47%) knew that a 5 to 4 vote in the Supreme Court was binding as law.

Frankly, I'm shocked. It doesn't take a college graduate, or even a high school graduate, to know those things. They are taught in junior high. It does help explain why so many of these people vote Republican though -- and stand by while those Republicans destroy our representative democracy, turning it into a corporate-controlled plutocracy (rule by a wealthy class).

(Note -- The image above was found at cafepress.com.)