One wonders how democracy is supposed to work, even in a representative form where the elected representatives actually follow through on their campaign promises to the voters they represent, when the majority of voters are completely ignorant:
When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.
I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I only got 19/20 correct on the citizenship test, although perhaps that’s not too bad for someone who left the country more than a decade ago. But only slightly, since although I made a dumb mistake, I also got one correct that I didn’t think I knew.