Further Adventures in Statistical Nonsense...Or How I Learned to Ignore Most Americans

As John Adams once said, "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right...and a desire to know." This sentiment has been echoed time and time again. Thomas Jefferson remarked, "I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education."

Thus, we come to our data; data, about which, Robert M. Hutchins would have this to say: "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment."

*Only 53% of Americans know that Congress has sole power to declare war, with close to 40% thinking it is the President's right

*Only 27% of Americans know that the First Amendment bars the U.S. Government from making any religion the state religion

*56% of Americans knew Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol compared to 21% recognizing a famous line belonging to Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address

*24% of College Graduates knew what the Lincoln-Douglass debates regarded

*Only 64% of these same graduates could name the three branches of government

*Over 70% of respondents failed the exam, getting less than 60% right; and the average student received a 47%

*Not on the survey, but I routinely ask my students who is third in line if the president and vice president died...I would say 3-6 people out of every 130 students know the answer to this question. Remember Alexander Haig?

Thus in ignorance, George Bernard Shaw's words ring truest: "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."