Annenberg Election Survey: voters barely know jack

[Ladewig]

Annenberg Election Survey


I am starting to understand why the founding fathers wanted some sort of check between hoi polloi and the election of the president.

How the f-bomb could anyone not correctly identify the candidate on issues such as

"who favors eliminating estate tax - that's the tax on property of people who die."
"who favors changing the recently-passed Medicare prescription drug laws to allow re-importing of prescription drugs from Canada."

 

[BPSCG]

I am starting to understand why the founding fathers wanted some sort of check between hoi polloi and the election of the president.

How the f-bomb could anyone not correctly identify the candidate on issues such as

"who favors eliminating estate tax - that's the tax on property of people who die."
"who favors changing the recently-passed Medicare prescription drug laws to allow re-importing of prescription drugs from Canada."

So are you in favor of disenfranchising the ignoranti?

OBTW, I'm guessing the answer to both questions is "Michael Badnarik".

HAH!!! EAT MY DUST, SHANEK!!!

 

[TragicMonkey]

Re: Re: Annenberg Election Survey: voters barely know jack

So are you in favor of disenfranchising the ignoranti?

No, I just don't want them to be able to vote.

 

[Ladewig]

Re: Re: Annenberg Election Survey: voters barely know jack

So are you in favor of disenfranchising the ignoranti?

I sometimes think about it but would never seriously propose it. On the other hand, is it really so draconian to ask people to identify the roles and responsibilities of the political offices they are voting for. Nothing obscure, mind you, just stuff listed in the Constitution.

 

[aerocontrols]

'Jack' who?

 

[BPSCG]

Re: Re: Re: Annenberg Election Survey: voters barely know jack

I sometimes think about it but would never seriously propose it. On the other hand, is it really so draconian to ask people to identify the roles and responsibilities of the political offices they are voting for. Nothing obscure, mind you, just stuff listed in the Constitution.

Well, when I take over, here's how things are going to work:

1) Every adult citizen who isn't actually serving time for a felony gets one irrevocable vote (too bad for Martha Stewart).

2) On a day prescribed by law, not fewer than 60 days and not more than 90 days before the general election, every eligible voter takes a basic civics test. Test day shall be a legal federal holiday.

3) The test shall be a test of knowledge of the political system in which you live. Ten simple multiple-choice/short answer questions with answers that are clearly right or wrong. Examples:

• Who is the Chief Justice of the United States?
  A) Sandra Day O'Connor
  B) William Rhenquist
  C) Alan Dershowitz
  D) Newt Gingrich
  E) Judge Judy
  
• How many senators represent your state?
  
• The President is head of which branch of government?
  A) Legislative
  B) Forensic
  C) Executive
  D) Judicial
  E) Economics
  
• Changes to the Constitution are called
  A) Amendments
  B) Substitutions
  C) Modifications
  D) Designated Hitters
  E) None of the above - Changes to the Constitution are not permitted
  
• Which of the following presidents had been an Army general?
  A) Franklin Pierce
  B) Zachary Taylor
  C) Andrew Johnson
  D) Millard Filmore
  E) None of the above

4) The test has ten questions. Each right answer gets the voter one additional vote to cast on election day. There is no penalty for wrong answers. Exception: Anyone choosing E as the answer to question 1 will be immediately deported to Haiti.

5) No opinion questions - only issues of clear, indisputable fact are allowed.

Nobody gets disenfranchised, but voters who make it their business to know something about the country in whch they live get more of a say than voters who don't know Jack. Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes will certainly both get ten extra votes. Most of the people on this forum probably will, too. But your idiot brother-in-law, whose idea of current affairs consists being up to date on who's porking who in Hollywood, will probably get no more than one or two.

Which is fair, right?

 

[ManfredVonRichthoffen]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Annenberg Election Survey: voters barely know jack

Well, when I take over, here's how things are going to work:

1) Every adult citizen who isn't actually serving time for a felony gets one irrevocable vote;

2) On a day prescribed by law, not fewer than 60 days and not more than 90 days before the general election, every eligible voter takes a basic civics test. Test day shall be a legal federal holiday.

3) The test shall be a test of knowledge of the political system in which you live. Ten simple multiple-choice/short answer questions with answers that are clearly right or wrong. Examples:

• Who is the Chief Justice of the United States?
  A) Sandra Day O'Connor
  B) William Rhenquist
  C) Alan Dershowitz
  D) Newt Gingrich
  E) Judge Judy
  
• How many senators represent your state?
  
• The President is head of which branch of government?
  A) Legislative
  B) Forensic
  C) Executive
  D) Judicial
  E) Economics
  
• Changes to the Constitution are called
  A) Amendments
  B) Substitutions
  C) Modifications
  D) Designated Hitters
  E) None of the above - Changes to the Constitution are not permitted
  
• Which of the following presidents had been an Army general?
  A) Franklin Pierce
  B) Zachary Taylor
  C) Andrew Johnson
  D) Millard Filmore
  E) None of the above

4) The test has ten questions. Each right answer gets the voter one additional vote to cast on election day. There is no penalty for wrong answers. Exception: Anyone choosing E as the answer to question 1 will be immediately deported to Haiti.

5) No opinion questions - only issues of clear, indisputable fact are allowed.

Nobody gets disenfranchised, but voters who make it their business to know something about the country in whch they live get more of a say than voters who don't know Jack. Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes will certainly both get ten extra votes. Most of the people on this forum probably will, too. But your idiot brother-in-law, whose idea of current affairs consists being up to date on who's porking who in Hollywood, will probably get no more than one or two.

Which is fair, right?

Culturally biased. Biased against our culture of ignorance.

 

[ManfredVonRichthoffen]

Here's an excerpt from the Bill O'Reilly/Bush interview:

O’REILLY: Do you have any theory on why college professors pinhead press people?

BUSH: [LAUGHTER]

O’REILLY: And I’m in one of those, by the way, — I’m a pinhead press figure —why they go into the liberal realm?

BUSH: No, I, I don't, I really haven’t…

O’REILLY: Cause you went to Yale and Harvard.

BUSH: I did.

O’REILLY: And they’re all, pinhead liberals over there, right?

[LAUGHTER]

BUSH: I haven’t spent a lot of time why professors feel the way they feel…


O’REILLY: You just wanted to get out of the class. I was the same way. I don't care what you think.

[LAUGHTER]