Politician Literacy Test – Buz Blog

Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Cori Bush of Missouri both posted statements on X that proved that they did not know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. This is a small issue, but it is illustrative of the fact that many of our elected officials lack a basic knowledge of our country, its history, geography and our Constitution. The most blatant example of this phenomenon was when candidate Barack Obama, in 2008, stated that he had been to “all 57 states”. And yet he was elected to the presidency.

This is what he actually said. “It is wonderful to be back in Oregon, Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it.” Obama’s campaign said he had been through an exhausting day and that he just “misspoke”. Even elementary students know that there are only 50 states and not 57 or 58 or 59, as the rest of his statement implies. This statement looks to be more based on ignorance of the number of states than evidence of a misspeaking, tired politician.

The all time greatest show of ignorance was made by Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson when he was questioning Admiral Robert Willard about a military build up on the US Territorial island of Guam. Congressman Johnson expressed his fear that the addition of military personnel would cause the island to “capsize”. Nothing compares to the ignorance of that statement.

California Representative Maxine Waters has made so many statements encouraging riots and supporting confrontations of those that disagree with her woke, left wing policies, that there are way too many to list here, but some are listed in a Congressional Resolution entitled “Expel Maxine Waters Resolution for Incitement of Violence and Rioting against the United States” on April 19, 2021.

President Joe Biden’s multiple lies, plagiarism, and confused and/or garbled statements are so well known that any recitation here would be redundant. I’m sure there are statements, quotes and oral faux pas made by Republicans too, but the point is that citizens who elect politicians who display this kind of ignorance, probably lack the same knowledge of our history, science, geography and Constitution as the people they elect.

Almost every elected and appointed public office in our country requires that the person entering that office take an oath supporting our Constitution. Most include the admonition that it is to be protected from enemies, both foreign and domestic. It is not beyond reason to suggest that many, if not most of those who take that oath, have not even read the Constitution. Many probably don’t know the difference between an Article and an Amendment in that document.

At a bare minimum it would appear that anyone running for public office should be required to take a test to see if they have a working knowledge of our Foundational Documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Logically, that test should include questions about our history and geography. This test should be given before each primary and general election and the results made public so that the voters would know if they were voting for an ignoramus or a well-read politician.

While literacy tests were banned as a requirement to register to vote by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a literacy test for political candidates has never been adjudicated. It would seem reasonable that even if a politician failed the test it would not disqualify him or her, as long as the results of the test were made public. This would give the voters the data they need to cast an informed ballot.