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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (77318)	2/6/2010 5:57:13 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Informed Citizenry By: John Derbyshire The Corner A friend just alerted me to this Pew Research Center report, which came out last week. <<< The news quiz, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Jan. 14-17 among 1,003 adults reached on cell phones and landlines, asked 12 multiple-choice questions on subjects ranging from economics and foreign affairs to prominent people in the news. Americans answered an average of 5.3 questions correctly. >>> Bottom line: Republicans are more knowledgeable than Democrats, men more than women, the old more -- way more -- than the young, whites more than blacks. Republicans even know more about Democrats than Democrats do: <<< About half (48%) of Republicans are able to identify Reid as the current majority leader, while only a third of Democrats can name their own party's Senate leader. >>> That average 5.3 out of 12 is 44 percent, and these are real softball questions. I'll register some mixed feelings. Beyond constitutional basics -- the kind of thing we immigrants have to swot up for our citizenship exam -- I wouldn't want citizens to be too interested in politics. I've spent a lot of time around people who are really, really interested in politics, and let me tell ya, a high proportion of them need help tying their shoelaces. In a nation under restrained, minimal government, politicians wouldn't bother us much, and we wouldn't bother them much. We could then, without guilt, concentrate our attention on things it is fun to concentrate one's attention on: family, money-making, sport, movies, the distribution of prime numbers. Alas, we have wandered far from that ideal, to a place where we have to keep our eyes on the critters or they'll pick our pockets and shut down our freedoms. That makes this poll bad news. corner.nationalreview.com