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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums2/3 of Americans can't name the three branches of government. 1/3 can't name one.
A recent Annenberg survey reveals how pitifully little Americans know about the basic structure of the government, and it also reveals that this lack of knowledge growing.
Most of the respondents don't know which parties controls the House and Senate.
http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-know-surprisingly-little-about-their-government-survey-finds/
Americans are woefully uninformed.
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Agschmid
(28,749 posts)
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)It clearly is not "representative," not with only 435 fund-raising oriented folk pretending to represent 310,000,000 people. Add to that the tea bagger industry, which is little more than a Koch funded effort to control everything, and it becomes obvious that our cistern no longer functions. System.
When the country was first designed, congress would actually meet and know their constituents, or many of them. Now, most congressmen have 750,000+ people in some of their districts. (ignoring ND, SD, etc). It is an impossibility for "representative" government to work.
We need a new design. We need a better use of technology, in a way that won't fail in case of war, catastrophe, or attacks. We need more people, many more people in government. Even if we tripled its size, it might not be enough. We also need to fund elections, take corporate input and money out of it, and we need to prevent the 0.001% from owning so many in the house and senate.
melm00se
(4,993 posts)best if we could somehow peg the number of representatives to the guidelines set in Article I, section 2.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)And the idea that a representative was limited to appearing for no more than 30,000 makes sense today, just like it did 200 years ago. I am remiss in my history, because even though I even taught law to foreign lawyers and judges, I do not recall when that particular section was ignored.
rickford66
(5,524 posts)The number of representatives remains as is, but each has a variable vote as a function of the number of people they represent. So, the Congressman from Wyoming, the least populist state, for example would get one vote but each Congressman from say California would get 1.2 or 1.4 votes. I'm making the numbers up. That would be closer to real representation that the founding fathers envisioned as opposed to the over representation that some states now have.
yuiyoshida
(41,832 posts)bother to know that when FOX NEWS will tell them EVERYTHING they need to know? 
Yes..Lots of idiots in this country.
former9thward
(32,025 posts)That says alot right there. Teachers are supposed to be teaching our system of government. They are not.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)It's their fault that people are just plain stupid.
former9thward
(32,025 posts)to teach our government system? Incredible.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)How do you know they are not teaching it? Do you honestly think there is a national failure of social studies teachers to omit civics from the curriculum?
Maybe they are teaching it, but the kids are too busy playing on their cell phones. (They are permitted to have them in class now!)
Maybe like so many other high school subjects, it is forgotten on graduation day.
Maybe it is not on the standardized test, so it has been cut from the curriculum.
What is incredible is your assumption that teachers are somehow negligent because people do not pay attention to government. Hell, most people do not know the name of the Vice President or which party controls the House.
If it is so important to you, why don't you research it instead of "blaming" teachers?
former9thward
(32,025 posts)Almost as if they are some disinterested party who happens to be the classroom that day.
When I was in law school I taught a course on the Bill of Rights at a local high school. All the students had computers in front of them. I told them to turn the computers off. The teacher told me, "We allow them to have the computers on in case something comes up that they want to look up" Of course that was BS, the students were using the computers for social media, games and pretty much anything except class. I told the teacher that policy would not be in effect when I was in the room. They would either turn them off or I would leave. The computers were turned off and we had a decent series of classes.
Tikki
(14,557 posts)does nothing to reinforce a workers rights to know anything about the larger World they live in.
Yes, TV, especially FOX like, want you to know how to worry more about if you are working hard enough to buy something.
The same reason most don't know all 50 States...they don't need that to become a good little Capitalistic soldier.
The Fox types want to tell you everything you need to know about government and every State and Country.
Tikki
former9thward
(32,025 posts)Did you forget basic English and writing when you graduated. If it is taught there is no reason to forget basic government when you leave school. This constant blaming others for every single problem does not solve anything.
Tikki
(14,557 posts)And if they were I wasn't a sheep type to listen.
Tikki
Taitertots
(7,745 posts)The average person spends more time watching advertisements than studying. Is anyone surprised to find out that this has resulted in widespread ignorance?
Orrex
(63,216 posts)Uninformed? Bah!
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Are the civically ignorant also civically disengaged?
corkhead
(6,119 posts)The PTB don't need the unwashed rabble to know civics to keep their lawns mowed and toe nails painted.
MANative
(4,112 posts)
Octafish
(55,745 posts)"Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation." -- President John F. Kennedy
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Anything?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)assassinating the president.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Then, when the House Select Committee on Assassination investigating years later began to close in on the connections, the CIA appointed the person monitoring Oswald in New Orleans to derail their investigation?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024176773
Just curious: Did you go to a public school, MohRokTah? If so, from where and when did you graduate?
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)As for solid evidence, check the White House tapes where unindicted co-conspirator Richard Milhous Nixon approves hiring a man who would kill anyone asked "on orders" to head the Secret Service detail guarding Sen. Ted Kennedy.
You can hear Nixon and Haldeman discuss it, about 40 minutes into the HBO documentary "Nixon by Nixon." While I had read the part of the transcript available years ago, and wrote about it on DU, almost no one I know has heard anything about it.
Ted Kennedy survived Richard Nixon's Plots
By Don Fulsom
In September 1972, Nixon’s continued political fear, personal loathing, and jealously of Kennedy led him to plant a spy in Kennedy’s Secret Service detail.
The mole Nixon selected for the Kennedy camp was already being groomed. He was a former agent from his Nixon’s vice presidential detail, Robert Newbrand—a man so loyal he once pledged he would do anything—even kill—for Nixon.
The President was most interested in learning about the Sen. Kennedy’s sex life. He wanted, more than anything, stated Haldeman in The Ends of Power, to “catch (Kennedy) in the sack with one of his babes.”
In a recently transcribed tape of a September 8, 1972 talk among the President and aides Bob Haldeman and Alexander Butterfield, Nixon asks whether Secret Service chief James Rowley would appoint Newbrand to head Kennedy’s detail:
Haldeman: He's to assign Newbrand.
President Nixon: Does he understand that he's to do that?
Butterfield: He's effectively already done it. And we have a full force assigned, 40 men.
Haldeman: I told them to put a big detail on him (unclear).
President Nixon: A big detail is correct. One that can cover him around the clock, every place he goes. (Laughter obscures mixed voices.)
President Nixon: Right. No, that's really true. He has got to have the same coverage that we give the others, because we're concerned about security and we will not assume the responsibility unless we're with him all the time.
Haldeman: And Amanda Burden (one of Kennedy’s alleged girlfriends) can't be trusted. (Unclear.) You never know what she might do. (Unclear.)
Haldeman then assures the President that Newbrand “will do anything that I tell him to … He really will. And he has come to me twice and absolutely, sincerely said, "With what you've done for me and what the President's done for me, I just want you to know, if you want someone killed, if you want anything else done, any way, any direction …"
President Nixon: The thing that I (unclear) is this: We just might get lucky and catch this son-of-a-bitch and ruin him for '76.
Haldeman: That's right.
President Nixon: He doesn't know what he's really getting into. We're going to cover him, and we are not going to take "no" for an answer. He can't say "no." The Kennedys are arrogant as hell with these Secret Service. He says, "Fine," and (Newbrand) should pick the detail, too.
Toward the end of this conversation, Nixon exclaims that Newbrand’s spying “(is) going to be fun,” and Haldeman responds: “Newbrand will just love it.”
Nixon also had a surveillance tip for Haldeman for his spy-to-be: “I want you to tell Newbrand if you will that (unclear) because he's a Catholic, sort of play it, he was for Jack Kennedy all the time. Play up to Kennedy, that "I'm a great admirer of Jack Kennedy." He's a member of the Holy Name Society. He wears a St. Christopher (unclear).” Haldeman laughs heartily at the President’s curious advice.
Despite the enthusiasm of Nixon and Haldeman, Newbrand apparently never produced anything of great value. When this particular round of Nixon’s spying on Kennedy was uncovered in 1997, The Washington Post quoted Butterfield as saying periodic reports on Kennedy's activities were delivered to Haldeman, but that Butterfield did not think any potentially damaging information was ever dug up.
SOURCE:
http://surftofind.com/tedkennedy
Why does that matter? The Warren Commission, and the nation's mass media, never heard about the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro until the Church Committee in 1975. You'd think that would be a matter of concern to all Americans, especially considering how then-vice president Nixon was head of the "White House Action Team" that contacted the Mafia for murder.
This is the sort of information citizens of a democracy shouldn't have to search the Internet to learn. It should be taught in school, or at the least, discussed in the nation's mass media. I certainly think it's unfair for people -- especially those who consider themselves Democrats or democrats -- to label those interested in such subjects "Conspiracy Theorists."
If you have HBO, look it up. In the meantime, read. Don't watch tee vee.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)"Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation."
BTW: Does MohRokTah have a meaning besides your handle on DU? What does MohRokTah rhyme with? Are there other MohRokTahs?
grasswire
(50,130 posts)...that poster gives you opportunity after opportunity to post information here on DU, information that he deems CT. Very useful!!
Octafish
(55,745 posts)The cure for that is education.
Like knowing where Poppy Bush was on Nov. 22, 1963 should be of interest to any Democrat.
ETA: Or Republican or Independent or anyone who cares about Justice.
Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"it's a pointless exercise.."
As is expecting character from those who rationalizing a lack of tipping...
(since we're into thread de-railing and all...)
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)The assassination of President Kennedy changed the course of the nation. Do you honestly believe we'd have five decades of "Money trumps peace" and the richer-get-richest had he lived to complete even one term? Bush and his cronies have done all they can to smear the New Frontier, dismantle the Great Society, and destroy the New Deal.
For some reason, you don't like me to bring that to DU's attention, Dreamer Tatum. Seems when I bring it up, you like to shut it down. An example from 2009:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6843822
Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)I am FINE with you bringing the JFK matter to everyone's attention. Here is what I'd be FINER with, just in case you care:
can the JFK CT crowd maybe use one of the annual get-togethers/smokers/BBQs/chili cookoffs/Indian Prince/whatever gatherings they have to, say, publish something definitive on the subject? The man was killed 50 years ago. The Warren report also has gray hair. Surely after DECADES the CT squad has settled on a primary theory. Surely that theory can be committed to paper and disseminated, so it can stand against, for openers, the Warren Commission report.
Otherwise it just seems like a bunch of people who like spitballing about whose boogers were found on the street after the limo went by.
(Incidentally, I was not born by 1963, nor by 1964, so I cannot possibly be part of the counter-conspiracy to shut you up)
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)That is when the systemic dumbing down of the country really began.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)
Why not get rid of the US Department of Education?
For those new to the subject of socialism -- it's a word to denigrate and demonize Democrats.
Operation COFFEECUP.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)
ReRe
(10,597 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Me too. I loves me some football. 
FSogol
(45,490 posts)
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)and here I was thinking it was El ninyo, Pinto and the Santa Maria
rats 
Brigid
(17,621 posts) KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)
unblock
(52,253 posts)
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,841 posts)And let's not forget that Cheney decided that the Vice President belonged to both & neither the Executive or Legislative branches so as to slither out of any oversight.
God damn all those bastards. We should have been a little less relieved to see them leave and a little more interested in hauling their thieving asses into court.
Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)I'll use it from time to time, say every other day here, when people start posting that this statement by a Rethug, or that vote by the House will really cause a huge surge of people going out to vote against this, or that.
Since the survey also found that 20% of the people think that 5-4 Supreme Court decisions go to the Senate to be confirmed I suppose, Citizen United isn't going to upset them at all.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Most people don't think about government except when they have to deal with it, and that's usually in some small way or through paying their taxes or something. It's not a part of their day-to-day thinking, and the civics class they slept through was a long, long time ago.
Even here on DU, I see people who don't really understand how our federal government functions. Such people expect the President to be able to sign a piece of paper and change everything. That level of ignorance of how this government actually functions is frightening, especially on a political discussion forum.
Education is the primary thing we all need to be doing. Helping people understand government makes it a lot easier when trying to convince them to come out and vote on election day. If they don't know why it matters or how it works, why should they bother? So, that's always part of GOTV efforts. It's amazing how many people don't know why their vote for state legislators matters, or even for local elected officials. If they don't know who has what power to do something, there's no reason to be concerned about who wins the election.
So, statistics like this don't surprise me at all. What surprises me is that we're not all thinking about how to correct that ignorance. Ignorance is correctable.
cali
(114,904 posts)I agree about education. Civics should be a part of the curriculum from the early grades- like starting in 1st grading. I think it is worth noting the differences between the 2011 survey and this one. quite a leap of ignorance regarding these basics.
I'd be curious to know how the U.S. compares to other nations in this regard.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)As a political activist, I believe it's also my responsibility to provide that education whenever I can. Political parties, too, should be working on educational projects for adults. It is the adults who are voting now, not the children, and they should be voting based on actual knowledge. We don't require that, but we should facilitate it.
cali
(114,904 posts)children is grade school now will be voting in a decade or so. and this is a problem that will take time to solve. It's much more difficult to educate adults.
Perhaps when it comes to adults, the most effective way of educating them would be a broad internet and tv campaign.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Of course kids should be educated about this stuff. Most are, and most forget it an hour later. Lots of adults had that education and have simply forgotten what they learned. There's evidence of that right here on DU, for pete's sake, and this is supposed to be a politically aware discussion forum.
We're (political parties) so busy running attack ads that we don't spend any time educating voters in any real way.
handmade34
(22,756 posts)of these countries studied...
Australia, Belgium (French), Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and United States
the United States came in sixth after Poland (#1), Finland, Cyprus, Greece, and Hong Kong SAR
http://www.iea.nl/cived.html
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)and must follow the Constitution. Others seems to think how they interrupt the Constitution is how it should be but it isn't. I know we tend to think the president is responsible for all bills passed or not passed. Information is so easily obtained, some from bad sources such as FOX but a little research from reputable sources can clear up FOX lies. If it sounds too good to be true then it just might be a lie. Thanks for your post.
whistler162
(11,155 posts)this hockum!
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Probably that one third are people who yell those two words all the time.
FSogol
(45,490 posts)
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Funny how that works out.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)joeybee12
(56,177 posts)They should teach that in Physics!
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,735 posts)it will collapse in on itself and suck the entire universe beyond the singularity of stupid into a mass of stupid from which not a single intelligent thought can escape. We seem to be on our way...
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Mini-black holes of stupidity already exist. See, e.g., Bachmann, M., and Gohmert, L. Further scientific examination of these phenomena is merited, though only in secure locations.
Historic NY
(37,451 posts)its really time to go back to basics in school...
Lets learn about ourselves first. Things we should know vs things that that could be elective.
librechik
(30,674 posts)
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Worth reading the whole thing:
Finland's, which has the best educational system in the world, by the records at least, is free. Germany's is free. The United States in the 1950s was a much poorer country. But education was basically free: the GI Bill and so on. So there's no real economic reason for high-priced higher education and skyrocketing student debt. There are a lot of factors. And one of them, probably, is just that students are trapped.
The other is what's happening to teachers like you. They're turning into adjuncts, temporary workers who have no rights, you know. I don't have to tell you what it's like, you can tell me.
But the more you can get the graduate students, temporary workers, two-tier payment, the more people you have under control - and all of that's been going on. And now it's institutionalized with No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top; teach to the test - worst possible way of teaching. But it is a disciplinary technique. Schools are designed to teach the test. You don't have to worry about students thinking for themselves, challenging, raising questions. And you see it down to the lowest level of detail. I give a lot of talks in communities and places where people are concerned about education and I've had teachers come up to me and say afterwards, you know, I teach sixth grade. A little girl came up after class and said she was interested in something that came up in class, and wanted to know how to look into it. And I tell her, you can't do it; you got to study for the test. Your future depends on it; my salary depends on it.
And that's happening all over. And it has the obvious technique of dumbing down the population, and also controlling them. And it's bipartisan. The Obama administration is pushing it. Also, an effort to kill the schools - the charter school movement vouchers, all this kind of stuff is nothing but an effort to destroy the public education system. It claims that it gives the parents choices, but that's ridiculous.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)to die off.
As I understand it, it's been quite a few years since Civics was standard in school curriculum.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,735 posts)How a bill becomes a law and all that stuff. I wasn't especially interested at the time but at least I learned it and remembered most of it later one when it became relevant to me. I don't know if they teach it at all any more.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)
tclambert
(11,087 posts)who now write the laws and then "shop" for Congressmembers to sponsor their bill.
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)
Puglover
(16,380 posts)And the Republicans will work long and hard to keep it this way.
Sadly I have to a great degree just stepped away.
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Larry, Curly & Moe.
Botany
(70,517 posts)
valerief
(53,235 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Starting in the maladministration of King Ronald the Simple.
Dr. Strange
(25,921 posts)In fact, I have many names for all three.
This topic reminds me of my Cracked photoplasty entry:
leftstreet
(36,109 posts)
Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)It may not even be primarily teahadists. Having spent my lifetime hanging around fellow progressives, I'm quite used to them having well-thought-out, well-informed positions on everything from transgender rights to Palestinian statehood to GMOs, but having no clue who represents them in the state or federal legislature, how the judicial appeals process works, or how laws get passed. Ironically, because I know those things and care about them, I'm often perceived as being more to the right than they are; I've even been tarred as an "apologist for power" just because I know how government actually functions. Loathe as I am to admit it, the smart conservatives I know have a better sense of U.S. civics than the smart liberals.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)No time to teach. We tried giving a voter exam and nobody thought that was fair to expect everyone to know basic facts about government so this is what we are left with.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)You have to know stuff like that to pass the citizenship test.
Deal with it, nativists!
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)Meanwhile, many native-born Americans apparently consider ignorance their birthright.
LibDemAlways
(15,139 posts)last Superbowl.
In California high school students take one semester of government in 12th grade and there is virtually no discussion ever of current events. When i was in high school back in the 60s the government teacher arranged for each student to have and read a newspaper every Friday. A few minutes each class period was devoted to what was going on in the world.
People today have too many distractions. Between trying to earn a living, watching sports, watching trash tv, and playing video games, they have no time to be informed citizens.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)glowing
(12,233 posts)curriculum, you end up with children who don't understand how govt works. I remember the little school house rocks cartoon/ song diddy from when I was a child... There is nothing even like that for kids today.
It's not that people are stupid, it's that people haven't been taught in any meaningful manner as to how important their rights are and how our govt works. I know that we had teachers who did teach this in school. It wasn't exact in a history book or what not... But we had teachers who would teach civics past the droning of 3 branches, and forget the lesson by the next semester.
We had mock govt set ups, debates, current events regarding the differing branches, review of supreme court judicial law... With all of that, I was still one of the only ones in my college, among my friends to actually vote... And even then, I didn't really understand the rules... If I had been registered in SC to vote back in 2000, my vote would have carried more weight than my vote I cast in VT by mail in ballot. I did not know that I could register to vote in SC and still be a resident of VT without it effecting my school financials. There is a huge disconnect with rules and voting and such in college campuses all across this nation, and I think that if more young people were educated and aware of their rights, young Americans, who tend to be more progressive and modern in views, would make a huge difference in winning outcomes. Most of these kids/ young adults really don't start voting or paying attention to local politics until they are settled down in a community after their college daze. And it's a really huge, untapped market of persons who could really effect a change in a community where they reside, work, pay taxes, etc for 4 yrs of their lives (maybe more if they stay on and attend grad school).
I bet if college kids became a large voting block, the amount of money they have to spend attending college would change greatly. Perhaps states would tax progressively to ensure that their colleges and universities could compete with low tuition rates, while offering a sound education.
Our children need to be more informed, more active, more vocal. There should be statewide competitions for schools to achieve a ballot initiative for everyone to vote on. There should be forms to register to vote at the moment they turn 18... Perhaps, even, we could reduce the voting age to 16 like many other progressive countries do. Many European countries allow drinking and voting at the age of 16. Could you imagine if you got these kids in the junior and senior year to begin the process of voting and learning about issues and debating and having politicians come into their schools to try and sway opinion or to debate their opponents. It would be really quite nice if we did move the voting age down to 16... Seeing that children can emancipate theirselves at that age from their parents, that they drive, many are working at minimum wage jobs and in kitchens with spattering fry grease, etc, an paying insurance on their vehicles, having to save money for college or their first apts when they turn 18, and yes, even paying taxes and fees on purchases and other services they must enact. I think it would be more than fair for these young adults to be able to vote... Especially because they are the ones who will be of the age to volunteer to go into military services and they will be the "boots on the ground" that will be fighting wars our politicians send them to. It's more than fair that they should have a voice and a say in who those politicians are that make those types of decisions that could maime or kill them.
Bryce Butler
(338 posts)Just in case someone didn't know.
ColesCountyDem
(6,943 posts)... Illinois required both 8th grade students and high school seniors to take and pass what was called the 'Constitution test'. Passing was 75%, and the test covered both the state and federal constitutions.
Things have changed, it seems.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)They shouldn't have to say, for example, "Executive, legislative, and judicial."
"The President, Congress, and the Supreme Court" would mean the same thing. It's hard to believe that 1/3 of people don't know we have a President who leads a branch of the government.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)And the fact that the only person who really covered this truly appalling incident was Keith Olbermann.
Then NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden even had the chutzpah to lecture the reporter who pressed him on this: "Believe me, if there’s any amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with it’s the Fourth."
If Americans were informed about the Constitution, this would've been major news -- and a national outrage.
JEB
(4,748 posts)
GitRDun
(1,846 posts)I do my best to educate my children, people I know, to learn what is going on in the world and get out and vote their own interest.
We see time after time, apathy and ignorance keeping bad politicians in office.
Ferguson, MO is a great example...9% voter turnout, all white government and nearly all white police force. While I empathize with them over the Michael Brown incident and the bad police conduct in the days thereafter, they have a responsibility now to organize, register to vote, and get those creeps out of there....we all have the same obligation.
IMO we either get smarter as a society or we continue along with a corrupt government run by the rich until the pitchforks come out.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)that the sheriff's job was to enforce the laws. Legislators made the laws. Person had no idea what legislators are, in this case the County Board of Supervisors, for the particular laws in question we were discussing at the time. Now I know for many of us, who had civics at junior high level, we could use a refresher course. If our corporate media won't educate people on how government works, who will? Perhaps ongoing free classes at the public library, staffed with volunteers, would help for those who are interested. I know years ago the public library in my town had literacy classes for people who couldn't read, yes there are many who can't, especially immigrants and they were successful. Maybe such an effort would work to make people informed about their government.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)The Executive, the Judicial and the Santa Maria, right?
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)
treestar
(82,383 posts)and that the officers beneath that level are just his minions.
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)
Go Vols
(5,902 posts)that could tell you every SEC school,but not the 3 branches of Govt or who heads them.
:/