Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
To become a naturalized U.S. citizen, an immigrant must take an exam with four components: speaking, reading, writing, and civics. The civics portion of the exam includes 100 questions about American government, rights, American history, and integrated civics. During the naturalization interview, the candidate is asked ten of the 100 questions, and must answer at least six of these questions correctly to pass the civics portion of the exam.
In the Daily Beast's poll of 1,000 people, 62% of Americans passed a simulated version of the exam (with the 60% minimum score), while 38% of Americans failed.
Upon closer examination of the results of the Daily Beast poll, Newsweek discovered the phenomenon of the "mindless middle".
[A] schism emerged about who knew what. Republicans did better than Democrats, with two thirds of Republicans passing vs. only 53 percent of Democrats. But liberals ( 64 percent) did better than conservatives ( 62 percent).
Parsing those numbers further, what we see is engagement at each party’s base. A solid 70 percent of conservative Republicans passed, followed by 61 percent of GOP moderates and 55 percent of GOP liberals. For Democrats, it was the opposite: liberals and moderates proved better informed, with 62 percent of both groups passing, but just 36 percent of conservative Democrats did so. In other words, conservative Democrats pulled down the numbers for both their ideology and their party, while the centers of both parties were the least engaged.
This illustrates something quite dangerous. The operative theory about America’s political situation holds that the fringe of each party is poorly informed, and the middle possesses the wisdom, but our numbers show it’s actually the extremes that are engaged—and thus, up on their facts—while the middle is relatively ill informed.
More than lacking knowledge, a lot of Americans, particularly in the middle, have completely tuned out. And given how little they know, it will be hard to get them back. Here’s the most telling number: Americans who vote regularly in elections tested above average—68 percent passed—but among the one in 10 who told us they weren’t interested in exercising their franchise, just 26 percent would qualify to be citizens of their own country.
Quiz yourself here. Note that this quiz includes 20 questions, so a passing score would be 12/20. (I was bummed out by my score of 19/20.)
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Nov '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
Took it last night and it went as high as 40 questions. Scored 39 of 40 (missed the total number of amendments by one). I'd be willing to wager Ricochet members will score better than any of the groups followed for Newsweek's poll.
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
I missed the same question! I had no idea how many amendments there are (I was off by 7).
And yes, I'd wager that all Ricochet members would pass with an average score of at least 90%.
Oct '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
I saw the story on Drudge and took the quiz last week. I think I hit them all. There were 20 questions when I took it though. FYI: the last amendment was actually proposed way back around the time when they were debating the bill of rights. It's taken longer to approve that amendment than any other.
Aug '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
Man oh man would I love to play with the raw micro data, especially if it includes some demographic covariates. Here are my informed speculations:
Feb '11
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
That was the question I missed, also. My initial thought was actually the correct number, but, having ram dumped all the test taking skills that served so well eons ago, I managed to talk myself into adding one. Oh well ...
Jul '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
Where is the question about how many slaves George Washington owned?
Mar '11
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
This is why representative democracy > direct democracy every time.
May '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
64% vs. 62% (libs vs. cons) in an overall sample of 1000 respondents will not be significant.
Nov '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
My wife and I are naturalized citizens. When we took the test way back in the dark ages, my wife was chatting small talk with the examiner just prior to taking the test. She asked, just as a ice breaker "You are not going to ask me who is buried in Grant's tomb; are you?" The examiner looked at her with a serious face and said "No, that's not one of the questions. But, who is buried in Grant's tomb?" My wife could believe what she was hearing but decided that the better part of valor not to antagonize the examiner and quickly defused it by saying that it was US Grant and went on to explain to the examiner his role in the Civil War and as president after Andrew Johnson.
Edited on Mar 21, 2011 at 1:43pmDec '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
I'm embarrassed to say I only got 18/20. Like others, I flubbed the number of amendments. But, I answered the Cold War question with the Soviet Union and nuclear war as the main concerns, which I think deserves at least half credit. OTOH my wife, a naturalized citizen from China, scored 19/20 (she knew we were fighting the Commies). Good thing she's on our side now.
Dec '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
It is a biennial frustration that the voters whose votes are the most determinative every election are the people paying the least attention. But, there is, as Frank Luntz says about the double-standard, nothing to be done about it except run more effective candidates.
Oct '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
If I ever have to take that test, I'm going to have to remember to give one or two word answers. Talk about overthinking some of this stuff.
Sep '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
This corresponds with my belief that many "centrists" are know-nothings who have found they can get by in political conversations by claiming "both sides" are wrong, or some variant. This way they can look smart - even smarter, and don't have to take and defend a position.
With this view firmly implanted in their minds, they need not learn anything and can continue in their own world. Unfortunately for the rest of us, these people have default beliefs anyway and they usually skew left
Sep '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
Upon closer examination of the results of the Daily Beast poll, Newsweek discovered the phenomenon of the "mindless middle".
Sounds like typical Newsweek readers. Don't they have a conventional wisdom arrow graphic for this?
Aug '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
Robert Promm: She asked, just as a ice breaker "You are not going to ask me who is buried in Grant's tomb; are you?" The examiner looked at her with a serious face and said "No, that's not one of the questions. But, who is buried in Grant's tomb?"
Edited on Mar 21 at 01:43 pm
That's not far off from the "What happened at the Constitutional convention?" question.
Nov '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
I'll admit I missed five:
-I said John Adams was one of the writers of the Federalist Papers. Oops.
-My mind completely blanked on who was president during WWI.
-My original thought on the number in the House was right, but then I second-guessed myself, thinking that number also included the Senate, so I was 100 short.
-I said the president of the Senate was after the Vice-President...forgetting they were one in the same.
-I just guessed there were 29 amendments. I always mess up this one.
A few years ago this same thing came up (without the same conclusions). I only missed the amendments question that time. Looks like I need to study more!
Nov '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
I missed one: how many ammendments? I just guessed 25.
Oct '10
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
I know how to solve this problem: a tax credit for scoring 90% on the test.
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
anon_academic
Robert Promm: She asked, just as a ice breaker "You are not going to ask me who is buried in Grant's tomb; are you?" The examiner looked at her with a serious face and said "No, that's not one of the questions. But, who is buried in Grant's tomb?"
Edited on Mar 21 at 01:43 pm
That's not far off from the "What happened at the Constitutional convention?" question. · Mar 21 at 2:13pm
I was scared to answer that question! I thought it was a trick question for sure.
Jan '11
Re: Political Centrists Most Ignorant of American Civics, History
Wow, the number of amendments aside, how can ANYONE miss most of these? "What did they do at the Constitutional Convention?" Uh, toast marshmallows? This is actually easier than Who is buried in Grant's Tomb? because Mrs. G is in there too, as I understand.