It’s time for America to get smarter about civics and history
It’s time for America to get smarter about civics and history
In November, The New York Times ran a story about a subset of voters who were more enthused about the idea of Vice President Kamala Harris making a White House bid than her boss, President Joe Biden.
One passage in particular caused many eyebrows to shoot skyward. A 21-year-old financial analyst in Las Vegas said she would probably vote for former President Donald Trump in the November election. But then, in the article’s words, “she strongly supports abortion rights – and did not realize that Mr. Biden does, too. She said that because states’ abortion bans had gone into effect during his presidency, she assumed it was because of him.”
This was gobsmacking. How could someone not understand where the leading candidates for president – and the two major political parties as a whole – stand when it comes to abortion rights, one of the most heated and galvanizing issues of our time? And how could they not understand that the president does not have the power to have states enact laws at his behest?
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. There is a long tradition of academics, educators, journalists and assorted other chin-scratchers lamenting America’s ignorance of our history and the workings of our government, and it doesn’t seem like that tradition is at any risk of dying anytime soon. But as we head into an election year where fundamental issues of our democracy are at stake, the fact that so many Americans seem to be so in the dark about the basics of who we are and how we got here is a matter of real concern.
In September, to mark Constitution Day, the Annenberg Public Policy Center conducted its annual civics survey, and it found that most Americans could not name all five rights protected by the First Amendment. It also found that a full 17% of Americans it surveyed could not name any branches of our government, 7% could name just one, and 10% could name two. It is good, of course, that 66% of Americans could name all three, but the 34% who couldn’t is an awfully big cohort of benightedness.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the center’s director, said, “It is worrisome that 1 in 6 U.S. adults cannot name any of the branches of government and that only 1 in 20 can name all five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. One is unlikely to cherish or work to protect freedoms one does not know one has and will have trouble holding elected and unelected leaders accountable if one does not understand the nature and prerogatives of each branch and the ways in which power is kept in check.”
Consider also the number of native-born Americans who cannot pass the citizenship test administered to new arrivals. In one recent year, 12% of those who took the test believed that Dwight Eisenhower led troops in the Civil War, 37% thought Benjamin Franklin invented the lightbulb and 2% guessed that the Cold War was a result of climate change.
Why is this happening? Some schools have placed more emphasis on reading, math and other subjects around science and technology, and some people, let’s face it, don’t have an interest or aptitude for history and civics. It’s perhaps an indicator of the relative affluence, comfort and stability of American society over so many years that so many of us can skate through life ignorant of our government’s workings and our history, or not even show up to vote.
But, as Hall Jamieson pointed out, ignorance can have dire consequences. Let’s fully understand what we have and what we have accomplished before we fritter it away.