Walter E. Williams at Townhall.com expands on a study that was recently done regarding public knowledge of basic civics.
I have made the point many times that liberalism won when it took over education and then proceeded to not educate but indoctrinate. Our kids know who Snoop Dog and Beavis and Butt-head are but they don’t know what the President and Congress actually do, or should do.
It starts out like this:
How about a few civics questions? Name the three branches of government. If you answered the executive, legislative and judicial, you are more informed than 50 percent of Americans. The Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) recently released the results of their national survey titled “Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions.” The survey questions were not rocket science.
Click through and read the whole thing it will get your blood pumping first thing in the morning.
Take the quiz here, I got an 88%
Walter E. Williams : Ignorance Reigns Supreme – Townhall.com
Cal Thomas has a brilliant post at Townhall today, I have wondered out loud why there such rampant civic illiteracy in this country. He is much more kind than I am. I constantly have conversations with people who don’t know the most basic tenets of our government. Simple things like what the President actually does, or more importantly, doesn’t do.
The money quote:
Part of it, I think, has to do with the continued embarrassment by the liberal education establishment over America and what it means to be an American. From their guilt about prosperity and our freedoms, to their opposition to “dead white males,” college professors, especially since the ’60s, have favored the trendy and quaint over the established and proven.
Click through he makes very good points.
Cal Thomas : The Other Deficit – Townhall.com
Walter E. Williams is one of the most articulate conservatives in the media today. In addition to his columns and radio fill ins he is a distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University. I have heard him many times on the radio and I have always been impressed by his ability to make the seemingly complex simple. As I have said many times in this space the solutions to our problems are not complex they are simple. It’s about returning to the foundational principles this country was founded on as articulated by the founders not the media or politicians.
In this article he explains why socialism is evil. He makes the case that socialism is a form of slavery. The money quote:
The bottom line is that we’ve become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” Tragically, today’s Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail.
Be sure to click through and read the whole thing. It’s very good.
Walter E. Williams : Evil Concealed By Money – Townhall.com
B.T.W. I’m working on a post defining conservatism and then I’ll get back to the conversation with Jordan. It’s been a very busy and draining week.
By Alexander Benard & Anthony Dick on National Review Online
I am thinking about a couple of ideas that will definitely start a discussion. In the meantime; heres a primer.
There are those who argue that the principles of the founders are woefully out of date — that our old ideals of limited government and individual liberty need to be revised and updated to accommodate the sweeping government intervention that the complexities of modern society demand. But Americans have always believed that our founding principles are not merely the product of a particular society or point in time. The principles are universal and inalienable or, to quote the Declaration of Independence, they are “self-evident truths.” These moral truths have not weakened over time, but rather have been strengthened by our national experience and our advances in social and economic understanding. Free-market capitalism has led not to the oppression and misery of the working class, but to a record of prosperity and a standard of living that are the envy of the world. Our conservative Constitution, skeptical of change and rooted in respect for the tradition of ordered liberty, has not made us inflexible but has rather safeguarded us from the turbulence of political fads and the temptations of radicalism.
Be sure to click through and read the whole thing,
America’s True Genius By Alexander Benard & Anthony Dick on National Review Online
I tend to think things are worse now than they’ve ever been. That’s probably not true. We just know about more things sooner than ever before.
I ran across this video from 1948. Clearly they were fighting the nanny state then as well. So those of us who believe in freedom, opportunity, personal responsibility, and self determination must show ourselves up to the task and fight for those ideals with the same passion and belief as those who came before us.
The battle we are in is no different than any other generation it’s just being fought in a different way. Arm yourself with truth, speak it out with love and compassion. As Del would say “in a whimsical way”. Take responsibility for yourself, be a good citizen, love and serve your neighbor. And for goodness sake GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!.
