I spent the first part of the 2006 Independence Day weekend at the Grove Park Inn & Spa in Asheville, North Carolina, playing a bit of golf, relaxing, and working on Somebody’s Gotta Say It. While there, I was treated to several editions of the Asheville Citizen-Times.
This is a Gannett newspaper, put out by the same folks as USA Today. Needless to say, its slant is decidedly leftist. That seems to fit in quite well with the Asheville community, which, I’m told, is quite proud of its liberal leanings.
A quick glance at the letters to the editor seemed to bear out the rumors of yet another left-wing newspaper. It seems that the good citizens of Asheville are somewhat preoccupied with matters like raising the minimum wage. From the looks of things, Asheville is a city that embraces the idea that the government should force employers to pay their employees more than their services are worth to the employers. I wonder how many of these people willingly pay more than market value for an item when they’re out shopping in Asheville’s trendy little frou-frou boutiques…just because they want to put some extra money in the merchant’s pocket?
As I’ve said plenty of times before, it’s oh-so-easy to show compassion when you’re showing it with someone else’s money. Interesting, isn’t it, that conservative communities tend to give more of their own money to charities, while liberal communities tend to give more of someone else’s?
Anyway, the July 2 edition of the Citizen-Times carried a front-page questionnaire entitled “How Patriotic Are You?” Readers were invited to take a quiz of ten questions and grade themselves. Under this questionnaire there was a quote from one Randy Goodstadt, the chairwoman of social and behavioral science at the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. To wit:
Well said, Ms. Goodstadt! Now perhaps you might hold a little training session with the folks at the Citizen-Times. Here are the ten questions they posted to test their readers’ historical knowledge:
- What is the date that the Declaration of Independence was signed?
- What document is the legal framework of the United States?
- Who wrote the words to the “Star Spangled Banner”?
- What is the Pledge of Allegiance?
- Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
- What is the number of original Colonies?
- Who was the first president of the United States?
- What is the minimum voting age in the United States?
- Who is the current governor of North Carolina?
- What is the motto of North Carolina?
Well…somebody’s gotta say it, so here goes.
That is perhaps the most moronic, idiotic, shallow, meaningless, worthless, and plebian tests of a person’s patriotism I’ve had the privilege to laugh at in my entire life.
It is just what you would expect from a left-wing newspaper.
Only two questions out of those ten are worth spending more than one nanosecond to answer: Questions 2 and 8. People do need to know that the Constitution is, or is supposed to be, the legal framework of the United States, and if you’re at all interested in voting, it might serve you well to know that the minimum age is eighteen. The other eight questions are completely worthless; knowing the answers has absolutely no bearing on whether you’re knowledgeable or patriotic.
Perhaps the Citizen-Times was having its annual Shallow and Meaningless Writing contest.
Now, you just knew I was going to have some suggestions on how to beef up this little quiz, didn’t you? Let’s take, oh, sixty seconds or so and see if I can come up with a better citizenship quiz than the Asheville Citizen-Times.
- Forget when the Declaration of Independence was signed. (Hint: It wasn’t July 4.) Instead, explain why it was signed. What were the signers trying to accomplish?
- What happened to the men who signed the Declaration? Did they go on to be heroes and live happily ever after?
- What does the Declaration of Independence say the people can do when a government becomes destructive to the ends of liberty?
- Are we about there?
- What would happen to anyone who tried today to alter or abolish our government if it became destructive to the idea that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed?
- Which articles of the Constitution grant specific powers to the federal government?
- Which article of the Constitution restricts the powers of the government to only those specifically set forth in the Constitution?
- Which article of the Constitution do you imagine is the one most often ignored by the Congress of the United States?
- Describe the circumstances under which Francis Scott Key wrote the words to “The Star Spangled Banner.”
- Do you believe people living in a free country ought to be compelled to recite a pledge of allegiance to that country? Why?
- If you are required to recite a pledge of allegiance, are you really free?
- Was the Revolutionary War supported by a majority of the colonists?
- Should Washington have developed an “exit strategy” before he ever led his troops into battle during the Revolutionary War?
- Where in our Constitution is it stated that anyone has a right to vote for the office of president of the United States? (If you’ve been following me, this one’s a gift.)
- How did our original Constitution provide for the appointment of senators?
- Most foreign countries appoint an ambassador to be their official representative before the government of the United States. Who officially represents the fifty state governments before the government of the United States?
- Explain the difference between a rule of law and the rule of man.
- Explain the difference between a democracy and a constitutional republic.
- Was our country founded as a country of majority rule?
- Can you imagine what our country would be like today if the majority did rule?
- Aren’t you glad the majority doesn’t rule?
- If two wolves and one sheep vote on what they’re going to have for dinner, what do you think the menu will look like?
- Why does it matter in the grand scheme of things who the governor of North Carolina is?
- Isn’t a governor something you put on a state to keep it from moving ahead very fast?
- What possible benefit could you gain by memorizing the motto of the state of North Carolina—or any other state, for that matter?
- How many times can the word “democracy” be found in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?
- How many times can the word “democracy” be found in the constitutions of any of the fifty states?
- What does this tell you?
- Define “civil war.”
- Was the war between the Northern and Southern states in the mid-1800s a civil war?
- Who is third in the line of succession to the presidency?
- Based on your answer to the foregoing question, would you demand that George Bush and Dick Cheney never eat from the same container of potato salad now that the Democratic Party is in control of the House and the Senate?
- How did the political class manage to fool the people of the United States into supporting a Constitutional Amendment creating an income tax?
- How do most people get their news on a daily basis?
- Does the “freedom of the press” clause in the First Amendment apply to the broadcast media?
- So, do most people get their news from agencies licensed to operate by the federal government?
- Why were the words “under God” placed into the Pledge of Allegiance?
- Do you think it’s proper for the federal government to compel students attending government schools under compulsory attendance laws to acknowledge the role of God in the formation of our country? Would this constitute “effecting an establishment of religion”? If not, why not?
- Do Americans derive their basic rights from the Constitution?
- If we don’t derive our rights from the Constitution, just why was the Bill of Rights added anyway?
- Define a system of government where the means of production are owned and controlled privately.
- Define a system of government where the means of production are privately owned but controlled by the government.
- Define a system of government where the means of production are owned and controlled by the government.
- Why do liberals have such a tough time answering question number 42?
- What percentage of total income is earned by the top 1 percent of income earners?
- What percentage of total income taxes collected by the federal government is paid by the top 1 percent of income earners?
- Where in our Constitution does it specifically state that only U.S. citizens may vote for the office of president of the United States? (Caution: trick question.)
- Name one right that a state government can exercise without interference from the federal level.
- Where in our Constitution does it specifically state that only U.S. citizens may vote for members of the House of Representatives?
- Look at the Bill of Rights. List any amendments in the Bill of Rights that were ratified for the purpose of limiting the powers of the government.
- If our Constitution provides for equal protection under the law, why, then, does the Voting Rights Act only apply to certain states that were held in political disfavor in the 1970s?
- List any amendments in the Bill of Rights that were ratified for the purpose of limiting the rights of individuals.
- If the Bill of Rights was written to limit the rights of government and to guarantee certain rights to the individual, try to explain why so many people seem to think that the Second Amendment was written to limit the rights of individuals and guarantee the rights of government?
- Does the First Amendment protect speech that some people might find offensive?
- Explain how our republic was threatened when Janet Jackson showed the world that she likes to wear a Japanese throwing star on the nipple of her left breast.
- What is the one exclusive power our government has that no individual or business can legally exercise?
- If we were playing rock-paper-scissors and treaties with foreign nations duly ratified by our Senate were the paper, would our Constitution be the rock or the scissors?
- Do you have the right to use force to take money from a stranger if you’re going to give that money to someone in need?
- Explain the concept of our government deriving its powers from the consent of the governed.
- Now explain how you can tell the government to do something for you that, if you did it for yourself, would be a crime.
- Should the government make something you might do a crime if that action doesn’t violate another person’s right to life, liberty, or property through force or fraud?
- How many votes must you have in the Senate to be assured that a piece of legislation will pass?
- Do you have a choice as to whether or not you pay Social Security taxes?
- Why, then, do they call Social Security taxes “contributions”?
- What is the average age of a country or society based on the rule of law and guaranteeing freedom, individual rights, and economic liberty?
- Has the United States outlived its life expectancy?
If I didn’t have so many other things to cover, I could expand this list until it filled an entire book. For instance, I could add a hundred or so questions beginning with “Where does the United States Constitution give the federal government the right to…” I think sixty-five questions are enough, though, don’t you?
Here’s a fun fact: Within days after I first posted this revised citizenship test on my website on July 5, 2006, I was flooded with letters and messages from government schoolteachers around the nation, telling me that this quiz, and the matters covered therein, would be the core of their next history and/or government class.
That’s nice to know, and I thank you for the flattery. As for the rest of you, it might be interesting to spend one class session asking these questions. Who knows, someone might accidentally learn something.