Individual liberty cannot survive a republic of duncesIn an era noteworthy for
Muslim terrorists plotting future 9/11s and nukes in the hands of
fanatical nut jobs like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea's Kim Jong il, you might think there couldn't possibly be a more serious problem to ponder.
You would be wrong.
Consider what happened recently when the Intercollegiate Studies Institute gave a 60-question civic literacy test to more than 28,000 college students:
"Less than half knew about
federalism, judicial review, the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and NATO. And this was a multiple-choice test, with the answers staring them right in the face," said political scientist Richard Bake, co-chairman of ISI's Civic Literacy Board.
"Ten percent thought that 'we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' came
from the Communist Manifesto," >>> Even the smart kids at Harvard failed the test, scoring on average 69, which is a D. >>>
When even our elite colleges and universities aren't teaching the next generation the basic concepts of the American republic like federalism or the difference between Thomas Jefferson and Karl Marx, it ought to be obvious that American public education is failing American democracy.
Does anybody on America's college faculties remember or care that
once liberty is lost, it is almost never regained? >>>
Madison wrote of the difference between Europe and America, saying: "In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example ... of charters of power granted by liberty."
If you don't grasp how Madison's simple equation makes all the difference in the world for the manner in which this country is governed, then you probably don't understand why liberals and conservatives disagree on just about everything that is fundamental to contemporary public policy. >>>
But
a generation that is not taught to recognize
the irreconcilable
differences represented by the Declaration of Independence and the Communist Manifesto, between Madison and Marx, the Federalist Papers and Rules for Radicals is doomed to be ruled, not to rule.
Individual liberty will not long survive in a republic of civic dunces.
==================================Great title for this article. Or it could read "How Obama won the election, Voter ignorance."
The last sentence sort of says it all, doesnt it? 
