Posted on 02/22/2006 5:00:59 AM PST by billorites
IGNORANCE IS dragging down democracy. Most Americans are increasingly on automatic pilot, paying less attention to each new war, each new power grab, each new Presidential assertion. But citizens need not slavishly follow every public debate in order to tilt the playing field against demagoguery.
The typical voter fails to comprehend even the basics of government. Most Americans do not know the name of their representative in the House, the length of terms of House or Senate members, or what the Bill of Rights purportedly guarantees, according to surveys by the University of Michigan.
A survey by the Polling Company after the 2002 congressional election revealed that less than one-third of Americans knew “that the Republicans controlled the House of Representatives prior to the election.” Almost two-thirds of Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice, according to another Polling Company survey.
An American Bar Association poll last summer found that barely half of respondents recognized the three branches of the federal government, and even fewer knew what “separation of powers” meant. Yet, that issue goes to the heart of controversies including the recently disclosed wiretapping program and congressional meddling in the Terri Schiavo case.
Power grabs by politicians are rarely accompanied by multiple-choice questions for the benefit of citizens. Instead, when the President is seizing new power, he can deploy his prestige and top advisers with focus-group-tested phrases. The President can address the nation in choreographed settings with hand-picked audiences guaranteed to applaud. Few citizens have the knowledge (or the self-confidence) to resist such tidal waves.
The number of government agencies that can accost, prohibit, tax, impound, impede, detain, subpoena, confiscate, search, indict, fine, audit, interrogate, wiretap, sanction and otherwise harass and subjugate citizens or their property and rights has skyrocketed. But few citizens have made a corresponding buildup of knowledge of their rights and government processes. It takes more than invocations of high school civics lessons to rescue ordinary people in the bureaucratic crosshairs.
With the rise of the Internet, it has become much easier to find politicians’ speeches, proposed new laws and media reports and analyses of government policies. Still, people probably spend a hundred times longer online checking out pornography sites than they do tracking down government abuses.
It is unrealistic to expect the typical American to become a devoted reader of the Congressional Record or of Supreme Court decisions — to say nothing of the footnotes in dissenting opinions. But the political system can be improved even if most citizens don’t immerse themselves in the arcana of government.
The key is not the raw amount of data ingested, but a more enlightened attitude. An ounce of skepticism is worth a shelf of federal registers. The U.S. system of government functioned fairly well in its early decades partly because citizens were wary of politicians offering favors.
The more deference government receives, the more damage politicians can inflict. Government has expanded in recent decades in part because many people forgot the perils of permitting some people to acquire sweeping power over them. Americans should recall why Thomas Jefferson trumpeted the need to “bind” all rulers “down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
But even with the right attitude, Americans must read more about political developments and pay closer attention — especially when politicians raise the stakes with saber-rattling for war or propose sweeping new laws. Reading the Bill of Rights takes less time than watching a Super Bowl halftime show. If people don’t know the basic rules of the game, they will be oblivious when the government fouls them.
Even if the majority continues to be apathetic about almost all political issues, the rise of a savvier minority can make a difference. Every 1 percent of the population that understands and opposes unjust policies sharply raises the cost of political abuse. Remembering past political falsehoods and follies can stack the deck in favor of prudence and liberty.
In 1693, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, declared, “Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.” Penn’s words should make Americans recognize the choice between knowledge and subjugation. People must either better understand government and politicians, or kiss their remaining rights and liberties good-bye.
James Bovard is the author, most recently, of “Attention Deficit Democracy.”
k'ping
History classes are too busy bemoaning the internment of the Nisei and Jim Crow laws to teach history.
And the worst part of this situation is that it has been consciously created.
But, even if more Americans knew that this is by design, they probably still would do nothing about it.
Speak for yourself, Mr. Bovard.
Also from James Bovard:
"The biggest election frauds usually occur before the voting booths open. Bush is upholding a long tradition of presidential deceit. He was reelected in large part due to mass delusions about Iraq."
"In 2002, Bush’s top legal advisors informed him that, as commander-in-chief during wartime, he was above all the laws Congress enacted. Bush’s legal whiz kids also redefined torture so that CIA agents and U.S. soldiers could brutalize detainees without fear of prosecution."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/bovard/bovard19.html
***
That's very good.
Today the people think they are making things happen with their participation in the never-ending and inane media polls. When that is just absurd. But they think they have a weapon in the fight for good government, when in reality they have little power at all. (To be honest, most of them don't deserve political power. They're too damn ignorant to make a decent judgment on most important matters.)
LOL
James Bovard is just another elitist liberal who thinks he knows what's best for the "ignorant masses".
The MSM didn't want us to think for ourselves because they knew what was best for us. Funny they are blaming us now for "being dumb".
"Government has expanded in recent decades in part because .......for the last sixty years or so Congress has abused the Commerce Clause and passed about 97 gazillion illegal and unconstitutional laws and the Supreme Court had let them get away with it! But thankfully in the last couple years under Chief Justice Rehnquist THAT has finally begun to change and many of these unconstitutional laws have been struck down.
There, fixed it :-)
rl
You have hit it.
His basic theory is good. In his application, what he means is that anybody who disagrees with him is at best ignorant, but is more likely evil.
I get so tired of being preached at by these guys. I'll bet I understand US history and politics more thoroughly than he does. I've just reached different conclusions. But he and those like him cannot even admit that possibility.
Can someone name JUST ONE instance of this "brutality" any soldier or CIA agent has committed other than forcing a prisoner to wear panties on their head?
These people who make these ridiculous allegations are a joke and they're really not funny anymore, they're just sad.
Just a guess Mr. Newspaper Editor: Did your newspaper's subscriptions/circulation increase or decline last year? I could write a better op-ed than these recycled high-toned platitudes. How much does this guy get paid anyway?
I agree with you on something!
I agree with Mr. Bovard that at least half of our population is comprised of idiots, but the liberals deserve a good deal of credit for it by their continued support of a public education system that simply doesn't work. Lib would rather cater to the teachers' unions than provide children with decent education.
I'm all warm inside.
;-)
Dangerous as ignorance is, it is but a blip in the inconvenience scale, and and could be relatively harmless, without the giant stinking shadow of islam looming everywhere...
Majority rule in a Constitutional Republic can be a real bitch sometimes.
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