Who's Our President? "I don't know...

[Jack_Dawson]

I don't pay attention to that stuff." I swear to God a girl I work with just told me this, and she wasn't kidding. I just registered her and told her to vote for Kerry or her brother would be drafted. "OK" she said.

Oy vey!

[KurtNYC]

1. What if she doesn't like her brother?

(kidding)

[gratuitous]

2. Hey, as long as you persuaded her to vote for Kerry

I don't care if she's a clueless cupcake or Judge Freaking Reinhold, I'll take her vote.

[Jack_Dawson]

3. Her vote counts as much as mine, so neither do I

Can you believe someone doesn't know who our jackass-in-chief is? That is mindboggling.

[yardwork]

29. On the up side, she doesn't believe all the freeper lies

So she's not all wrong. She's sort of neutral, in a way, sort of....

[NinetySix]

4. I Don't Know's on third.

Ignorance is in the White House.

[johnnie]

5. Well...

She is only a little more misinformed than the average American. So that's not too bad.

[Jack_Dawson]

6. I think most Americans know who our selected president is...

I mean that's pretty bad.

[Beausoleil]

7. Ted Rall has a solution for this!

Not that I agree with his solution:

"At this writing, the world's greatest nation flails under the rule of buffoons and madmen, bogged down in two optional wars we're actually losing. The world's richest economy is shedding jobs, running up debts and building nothing for the future. Voters, offered an election year alternative to the subliterate idiot who single-handedly created this mess, spurn him for a leader even dumber than they are. America has become a stultocracy: government by morons, for morons.

A 2002 poll found that 64 percent of Americans--people whose votes help determine how much you pay in taxes--could not name a single Supreme Court justice. In 2003, 58 percent--people whose votes could elect someone who starts a nuclear war--couldn't identify a single department of the president's cabinet. Voters aged 18 to 24, whose recent schooling ought to inspire confidence in their knowledge of basic facts, are especially ignorant. National Geographic (news - web sites) says that 85 percent of young American adults can't find Afghanistan (news - web sites), Iraq or Israel on a map.

The fact that these yahoos are allowed to vote is an abomination. Their ill-considered ballots cancel or dilute those cast by those who do the heavy lifting that makes them good citizens: keeping abreast of current events, researching issues, studying candidates' positions.

-snip-

... a basic political literacy test should be used to ensure that anyone who picks ESPN over CNN--regardless of race or creed--stays home on Election Day. Prospective voters should be required to answer at least three of the following questions correctly; to give people a fair shot, the test should be published in newspapers a week before an election:


1. Who is the vice president?


2. What is your state capital?


3. Name one of the following: your governor, congressman or one senator.


4. What is the capital of the United States?


5. Name one federal cabinet-level department."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&e=1&u=/ucru/20040923/cm_ucru/triumphofthestultocracy

[fudge stripe cookays]

13. Sounds like those folks

they had on Letterman a few years ago in the street interviews who, when asked if the United States had ever been at war with Japan answered confidently, "No."

These people just floor me. I can't get over the monumental, unapologetic ignorance.

Even when I didn't care anything ABOUT olitics I knew something about it.

FSC

[Beausoleil]

18. The stakes are too high

Self-indulgent ignorance is going to kill America. Now, which side thinks it's cool to be ignorant?

[TWiley]

8. A cabbie in NYC told me that Cheney was actually president.

and "Mr. Stupid" was only there to take the bullet. He ranted all the way from Washington Square to 38th and 8th Ave. I almost thought that he would not let me out of the cab until I agreed with him. So, I did.

[crispini]

17. Hmmm..

"A cabbie in NYC told me that Cheney was actually president."

Actualkly I think I agree with him. Heh!

[spooky3]

20. I find that cabbies are often MUCH better informed and have stronger

opinions than many other people. Maybe this is because most in my town are immigrants who are motivated to learn more than the average folks.

[Clinton Crusader]

9. I cant beat that...

a family member works with a girl who's from NORTH CAROLINA and has no flippin CLUE who John Edwards is. NONE! And she's dead serious. The problem is - no flames - that most of the generation of early 20 somethings dont give a rats bum about politics. ALL they care about is a part time job somewhere, their cell phone, their cars, and who they can sleep with. When you try and explain, they wave you off, saying oh please, all politicans are the same, who cares? They're very self absorbed and dont care about ANYTHING outside their little circle of friends.

Of course this is not an indictment of ALL 20 somethings, but the vast majority HERE (LI, NY) are like this.
:kick:

[skygazer]

10. Amazing, isn't it?

I think a lot of the problem is that people feel disconnected from politics. They don't see the direct affect on their lives, though it's there all the time. It's not like back in the old days when most people lived in a rural area and you knew everyone. You had a good chance of personally knowing the people who were representing you. Now they're slick images on a TV screen.

We're more a nation of cities now and that personal aspect is no longer there. If you don't come from a family that's political, or if you don't come in contact with people or situations that make you take notice, you end up like that girl, completely unaware. I know a lot of people like that and it stuns me every time.

[saccheradi]

11. so what can be done?

[skygazer]

16. Good question

And I don't really know. People are so apathetic - they don't attend community meetings or forums even when they're held. Some politicians will actually go door to door to talk to people but most people work so they miss a lot of them.

I'd like to see more of this stuff addressed in schools. I don't have any school age children now so I don't know what's covered. But that would only go so far too. Kids often don't retain what they get in school.

We had a program in my high school that put on a Model Congress, U.N. or State Legislature every year. Some kids participated as delegates and the rest were required to attend in connection with their Civics class or whatever. It lasted a week and was fun and educational. Got my interest but I don't know how effective it was for the majority.

I really don't know. But I think it's a problem that needs to be addressed somehow.

[Bandit]

12. Her Brother....What about her? If there is a draft it will be for all

Not just the boys anymore. All youngsters need to be aware of what's to come. Anyone, male or female, between the ages of eighteen and thirty five should worry a bit.

[ClassWarrior]

19. Yup, the bill they're proposing includes male and females.

Details here:

http://somnamblst.tripod.com/

Check out the flyer near the bottom right.

23.

[Guaranteed]

14. Sounded easy enough. LOL nt

[Rambis]

15. I did that last night

I gave the draft flyer to someone who has two deadbeat kids (bad male role model)and she said they were both on ritalin so they won't be able to be drafted. I said, if I were you I wouldn't count on that keeping my 18 and 21 year old sons who are not employed or going to school out of the draft, sorry. They could really use basic training anyway but not to go to Iraq.

[theHandpuppet]

21. My niece, an *honors student* in a North Carolina H.S....

... hadn't a clue when I asked her which countries were engaged in WWII. When I gave her an obvious clue, "think Hitler", she just blankly stared at me. Neither could she offer an approximate guess for when the Civil War was fought or even the Vietnam War. No idea who her Senators are nor the Vice President of the United States. I'm sure she's one of those folks who couldn't find Canada on a map if it was outlined with a shocking pink highlighter.

Sheesh, I thought some of the schools here in WV were bad! To think she was offered a college scholarship! I really don't get it. Whatever happened to basic classes in social studies, history, geography and civics?

Even though my niece doesn't live with my brother (in another state) I still raked him over the coals over this, but it didn't bother him at all. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that he's voting for Bush, even though he recently lost (after twenty years) a well-paying union job in Ohio (manufacturing) and is now working a minimum-wage assembly line job in TN.

Sometimes it simply hurts to contemplate these things for very long.

[Jack_Dawson]

22. "No Child Left Behind" - n/t

[theHandpuppet]

23. Education seems to be a low priority...

He's basically a one-issue voter, being rabidly anti-gay. Must be hell for him having a gay sister and one gay daughter who he threw out of the house. He's so paranoid about his kids being gay he won't even let his five-year-old son wear sandals in the summertime, footwear he considers "faggot shoes" which could turn his son into a homosexual.

Yep, he has a lot of issues but education isn't one of them.

[Jack_Dawson]

24. OMG! "Faggot Shoes"?

Guess I'm a faggot too. That level of ignorance is very distressing.

[mtnester]

26. THIS is a product of teaching to the test

eom

[theHandpuppet]

28. How so?

Mind you, I've been out of school for a LONG time but I wouldn't have been passed to sixth grade with the abysmal level of knowledge expressed by my college-bound niece. What exactly is "teaching to the test"?

[MissB]

30. Do you know much about NCLB?

The No Child Left Behind act? The mandates in the act virtually forces teachers to teach to the test. In other words, the pressure to pass enough students to have the school receive an "acceptable" grade forces the teacher to prepare the students exclusively for test - at the expense of interesting, thought-provoking material.

Sad, really.

[AuntPatsy]

25. Thats really hard to believe, not that I don't but it's so hard, I have

my own self involved children, yet all of them know quite a bit of history on other wars including ww 2, and they all despise Bush though they are only voting because they don't like him and think hes an idiot, more than likely because when they talk to me, nine times out of ten Im talking politics so for those who dont know who the president is, I would assume, neither does the parents?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

27. A coworker of mine knew who the president was

but she thought Colin Powell was the vice president and said she'd never heard of Cheney. When I told her Cheney was VP, she said "Are you SURE??? I could have sworn it was that Colin Powell guy..." "No," I said, "he is the secretary of state."

No shit, she said, "Damn, didn't he used to be a big military person? Now he's a secretary?"

I laughed, thinking she was kidding. She looked puzzled at my laughter. She wasn't kidding.

I took her under my wing and tutuored her with her permission. She WAS interested in self-growth and learning. I am happy to report she is registered to vote and is a Kerry supporter and can't wait to vote for Kerry.

[cheshire]

31. I bet she has higher standard for picking boyfriends, hope so anyway.

[lanparty]

32. TECHNICALLY ...

... Al Gore

A usurper inhabits the White House!!!!