and we wonder why we have the government we have today!

My grandson just finished his first week at the University. He told me that the professor of his “American Politics” class gave a 25 question test on the first day to see how much the students knew about the government. He happened to see one of the other student’s answers to a couple of questions as they turned in their paper. To the question “Who is the Secretary of State?” she answered Jesse Jackson and “who is the Secretary of Defense?” she answered Colin Powell. She had to be at least 18 years old, a college student, and eligible to vote.

She is representative of the electorate. Most voters are abysmally ignorant of current events unless it has to do with Michael Jackson, Madonna or Brad Pitt and I am not talking about the youth entirely. If you look at the Oprah Winfrey audience of screaming middle aged dunder-heads you have to wonder about their knowledge of current events. I venture to say if they were given the same test the results would be the same.

The media, et al is always exhorting the public that they have a “duty to vote.” Yes, but before they do they have a duty to study the candidates, the issues and make an informed vote. Sadly, that’s not going to happen. People, for the most part, vote on emotion, charisma and media bias.