10/10 - too easy. C'mon, people. If a stoner Canadian can get 9 then our "man on the street" should be able to ace this thing, too.
You forgot "publicly educated" stoner Canadian... Oh, and for the record, it was question 6 that I missed.
Gul pointed out (when I posted this on facebook) that this doesn't specify what sort of elected official and could include anyone, including offices which have nothing to do with the constitution. the real story to me is that less than half of the VOTERS know the basics. when that happens it stands to reason you'll have a fair share of electees who don't.
I could understand people not getting where "wall of separation" comes from or the Anti-Federalist question (especially the average person), but the rest is basic government 101. Like Nova said, it would be interesting to see which elected officials where asked (like are we going to down to the city council level here?)
Looking at some of the options available in the questions, I'd love to see how each member of our Congress answers these questions.
Aside from wanting know what level of elected officials, I'd also like to see what they are comparing it to. According to the article the sample is "mostly college students." Are we comparing 50 year old HS dropouts to each other with the only difference being one held office at some point or are we comparing a kid who just finished Poli Sci 101 to a 50 year old HS dropout who got elected to his neighborhood council ten years ago? The fact that the opinion piece written by the head of this organization uses the term 'national average' instead comparable tells me it is the later. However "college kids know more civic facts than population as a whole" just isn't as catchy a headline. Especially when your agenda is to attack government. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., or (ISI), is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1953 as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists. Its members, over 50,000 college students and faculty across the United States, use programs intended to supplement a collegiate education and provide access to resources that help achieve an education based primarily on works of influential men and women in the European and Christian traditions. The group supports limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, free market economy, and traditional values (specifically, those of the Judeo-Christian tradition). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercollegiate_Studies_Institute
10 for 10. This should have been a piece of cake for everyone, especially people who have a specific role in our governmental system. Thank God we elected a constitutional lawyer as our President. Some of his predecessors weren't so well versed (including his immediate predecessor who thought he was "the decider", a self-declared title which implies a presumption of dictatorial power).
Actually, in that case Bush was right. His odd use of the English language aside, he was talking about Rumsfeld remaining as secretary of defense when he made the "decider" comment. That clearly is in the executive branch's purview.
