How can you run government if you don't understand it?
Times-News Editorial Board
May 25, 2010
Twin Falls Times-News
Vaughn Ward's government teacher at Jerome High would be disappointed. The Republican 1st Congressional District candidate in today's primary election, who graduated from Jerome High in 1987, told a debate audience in north Idaho last week that Puerto Rico is a foreign country.
It's not, of course. Puerto Rico, where Ward's primary opponent Raul Labrador was born, is a territory of the United States. If Ward wants to represent Idaho in Congress, he should know that - and Labrador told him so.
"I really don't care what it is, I mean it doesn't matter," Ward replied.
That's one of the problems this election year. Too many candidates are too clueless about the government in which they want to work and the people they're seeking to represent.
That body of knowledge is called civics, and it used to be taught - as a distinct class - in every high school in America.
Not anymore. A study by the non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute found that just half of U.S. adults can name all three branches of government and only 54 percent know that the power to declare war belongs to Congress.
And while 56 percent can name Paula Abdul as a judge on "American Idol," only 21 percent know that the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" comes from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
And only 54 percent can correctly identify a basic description of the free enterprise system.
That's not just pathetic, it's dangerous in a system that chooses its leaders from the population as a whole - and not from an elite class.
Every fourth-grader in public school in Idaho is required to take a state history class, but overall knowledge of Idaho's history, culture and government has faded alarmingly. More than a few primary election candidates the Times-News editorial board interviewed this spring didn't know the basic duties of the offices they were seeking.
Part of the reason is that so many political newcomers, angered over Obamacare, are seeking election for the first time. But unlike some states - Minnesota, for example, where a basic knowledge of the state's history and culture is considered something of a citizen's duty - there is no demand for civic literacy in Idaho.
There needs to be. For the crop of new legislators and county elected officials who will take office next January, it's going to be harder than they can imagine to chart our future without understanding our past.
And as for Vaughn Ward? He should get after-school detention.
Originally posted at http://www.magicvalley.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_21a8d7d9-8f6c-57e6-a406-8ac6a130eb48.html
The editorial posted here is provided by permission of its original publisher and does not necessarily reflect the views of Idaho Public Television.