{"id":1715,"date":"2017-09-17T05:55:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-17T05:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:06:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:06:30","slug":"frightening-level-of-ignorance-about-our-own-us-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1715","title":{"rendered":"Frightening level of ignorance about our own U.S. Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the 230th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"http:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e201bb09c3a5be970d-pi\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Constitution\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a00d834525a2f69e201bb09c3a5be970d img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e201bb09c3a5be970d-150wi\" style=\"width: 150px;\" title=\"Constitution\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org\/americans-are-poorly-informed-about-basic-constitutional-provisions\">Many Americans are poorly informed about basic constitutional provisions, according to a new national survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;The annual Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey finds that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More than half of Americans (53 percent) incorrectly think it is accurate to say that immigrants who are here illegally do not have any rights under the U.S. Constitution;<\/li>\n<li>More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) can\u2019t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment;<\/li>\n<li>Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) can name all three branches of government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;\u201cProtecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are. The fact that many don\u2019t is &#0160;&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;worrisome,\u201d said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. &#0160;&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;\u201cThese results emphasize the need for high-quality civics education in the schools and for press reporting that underscores the &#0160;&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;existence of constitutional protections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Annenberg Public Policy Center is at the University of Pennsylvania. Here&#39;s more &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Nearly half of those surveyed (48 percent) say that freedom of speech is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. But, unprompted, 37 percent could not name any First Amendment rights. And far fewer people could name the other First Amendment rights: 15 percent of respondents say freedom of religion; 14 percent say freedom of the press; 10 percent say the right of assembly; and only 3 percent say the right to petition the government.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hit the link above for the whole sad story &#8211; like on 26% can name the three branches of government. I guess you get the government you deserve&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>&#0160;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the 230th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. Many Americans are poorly informed about basic constitutional provisions, according to a new national survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center. &#0160;&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;The annual Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey finds that: More than half of Americans (53 percent) incorrectly think it is accurate to say [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6685,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/6685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}