Bad Civics

Jan. 29, 2016

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving college and university education and educational opportunities. At least that’s what they say.

They conduct research from time to time. In August 2015 they attempted to find out what college graduates know about basic civics. They surveyed 1,000 grads. It took them until January to release the results, and no wonder. The results weren’t altogether encouraging.

Some of the questions required knowledge beyond the bare-bones basics but not by much.

For example, of those 1,000 graduates, less than 29 percent knew that James Madison was the primary drafter of the U.S. Constitution and authored the Bill of Rights. Madison is often referred to as the Father of the Constitution.

Nearly 60 percent believed Thomas Jefferson wrote the constitution. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence so maybe that’s an understandable error. Or maybe not. Both are seminal documents for our country but written many years apart by very different men seeking different objectives.

More than 40 percent of these college graduates did not know Congress can declare war, not to mention only Congress can declare war. This is maybe the easiest to understand of all the bad answers.

Since World War II, when Franklin Roosevelt asked and received a Declaration of War from Congress, there have been no declared wars. None. Let’s see... Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan/ Iraq, not to mention dozens and dozens of smaller conflicts but not a “war” in the bunch.

It’s pretty easy to assume there is no need for Congressional approval of wars when we fight them all the time without it.

Less than 50 percent of the survey’s respondents knew an impeached president is then tried by the United States Senate. Plenty of people make this mistake but half seems like too many.

Think of the U.S. House of Representatives as sort of grand jury when it comes to impeachment. They determine if there is sufficient evidence to turn the president over to the Senate for a trial. The entire 100-person Senate serves as a jury. If 67 members of the Senate (twothirds) believe the president is guilty, he or she is removed from office. Bill Clinton was impeached but his Senate jury fell many votes short of expelling him.

A whopping 60 percent of the survey could not successfully explain how the U.S. Constitution is amended.

It is a multi-step process intentionally. Our constitution’s authors wanted it to be possible to amend the document but not easily. There are two ways it can happen.

The only way the Constitution has been amended thus far is through a joint resolution of Congress that must be passed by two-thirds majorities in both the House (292 votes) and Senate (67 votes). The amendment under consideration is then sent to the states. It must be approved by three-fourths (38) of the states. There can be a time limit on the ratification process.

There has never been an amendment approved by the second method, the calling of a constitutional convention. That would require 34 states (two-thirds) to call for a convention at which amendments could be considered or the entire document rewritten.

Then things got considerably worse for our graduates, or at least some of them.

Fully 10 percent believe Judith Sheindlin is a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. Sigh.

Popular though she may be, bullying people involved in mostly minor league civil disputes has not earned Judge Judy a nomination to the Supreme Court. Here’s a hint for those asked the same question in the future: Judge Judy is on television; the Supreme Court is not and has never been.

Of course, there are women on the court, and 65 percent of our respondents knew at least one of them and nearly 30 percent knew the current court includes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (appointed in 1993), Justice Sonia Sotomayor (2009) and Justice Elena Kagan (2010). Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman Justice, appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981.

To be fair, our college grad respondents did significantly better on basic questions, or at least most of them. But it’s hard to understand how so many could be so wrong about so much.

Why? Do we teach civics for a semester or a year and then never revisit the subject again? Have the curricula been so disrupted by everchanging standardized testing there’s no time for the subject?

Maybe people believe it isn’t important enough to try to bother. After all, does it really matter?

Well, yes, it does. If we’re going to constantly grumble about the dreaded government maybe we should at least be a bit more interested in its history, how it actually works and know the current players. Judge Judy? Seriously?