Surveys Point To Dreadful Understanding Of The Constitution

The anniversary of the signing of our glorious Constitution 230 years ago this past Sunday brought out, among other things, several surveys conducted to find out just what people know about the Constitution.  The two most noted surveys that came to my attention were conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center Of The University of Pennsylvania that surveyed 1013 adults & the Brookings Institute that surveyed 1,500 college undergraduates.

 

The Annenberg survey aptly carried the online headline Americans Are Poorly Informed About Basic Constitutional Provisions & reported that more than a third of the adults surveyed (37%) could not name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment & only a quarter (26%) could name all three branches of government.

 

click on graph to enlarge

 

Only 48% of respondents could name freedom of speech as a right guaranteed by the First Amendment, but unprompted, 37% could not name any First Amendment right.  Naming the other four First Amendment rights dropped off fast as indicated on the above graph.

 

click on graph to enlarge

 

Just a little over a quarter of respondents (26%) could name the three branches of government (legislative, executive, & judicial).  This is a drop from the 2011 Annenberg survey when 38% could name all three.  One third of respondents could not name any of the three branches.

 

The Brookings Institute survey of 1,500 current undergraduate students @ U.S. four-year colleges & universities had a geographically diverse population with respondents from 49 states & DC.

 

John Villasenor, the author of the Brookings survey, wrote "Freedom of expression is deeply imperiled on U.S. campuses.  In fact, despite protestations to the contrary (often with statements like 'we fully support the First Amendment, but . . .'), freedom of expression is clearly not, in practice, available on many campuses, including many public campuses that have First Amendment obligations."  You don't need a physical Antifa presence on every campus to enforce the politically correct mindset that doesn't understand the liberties Americans are losing.

 

Some specifics, in percentage of respondents, from the Brookings survey – questions presented in italics:

 

Does the First Amendment protect "hate speech"?

 

		Political Affiliation			Type of College		Gender
	All	Dem	Rep	Ind	Public	Private	Female	Male
Yes	39	39	44	40	38	43	31	51
No	44	41	39	44	44	44	49	38
Don't know	16	15	17	17	17	13	21	11

Fewer than half of the respondents in the above table in all three political affiliations correctly believe that hate speech is constitutionally protected. 

 

A student group opposed to a speaker (known for making offensive & hurtful statements) disrupts the speech by loudly and repeatedly shouting so that the audience cannot hear the speaker. Do you agree or disagree that the student group's actions are acceptable?

 

		Political Affiliation			Type of College		Gender
	All	Dem	Rep	Ind	Public	Private	Female	Male
Agree	51	62	39	45	51	51	47	57
Disagree	49	38	61	55	49	49	53	43

The numbers in the above table indicate that a large percentage of students believe it is OK to silence a speaker they find offensive by shouting him off the stage.  The next question escalates the matter.

 

A student group opposed to the speaker uses violence to prevent the speaker from speaking. Do you agree or disagree that the student group's actions are acceptable?

 

		Political Affiliation			Type of College		Gender
	All	Dem	Rep	Ind	Public	Private	Female	Male
Agree	19	20	22	16	18	21	10	30
Disagree	81	80	78	84	82	79	90	70

Having ten to thirty percent of respondents being OK with violence to silence a speaker is a good barometer of the state of the campus today.

 

Consider an event, hosted at a public U.S. university by an on-campus organization, featuring a speaker known for making statements that many students consider to be offensive and hurtful. A student group opposed to the speaker issues a statement saying that, under the First Amendment, the on-campus organization hosting the event is legally required to ensure that the event includes not only the offensive speaker but also a speaker who presents an opposing view. What is your view on the student group's statement?

 

		Political Affiliation			Type of College		Gender
	All	Dem	Rep	Ind	Public	Private	Female	Male
Agree	62	65	62	58	63	60	60	66
Disagree	38	35	38	42	37	40	40	34

Of course the First Amendment does not require any such requirement.  The majority of students may be thinking about good event design in their answers but that has nothing to do with the First Amendment.

 

***

 

In summary, & no surprise to regular readers of RTE, the above results of both the Annenberg survey & the Brookings Institute survey were dreadful & offer very little hope for turning around the intellectually inept politically correct mindset that has gripped the country. 

 

Adults in the Annenberg survey knew nothing about the Constitution itself & a far too large number of students in the Brookings survey see nothing wrong with stifling another's point of view with shouting &/or violence while thinking they should be protected from hate speech as they define the term.

 

"Protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are."  - Kathleen Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Center.  And of course many of the combined 2513 people from the two surveys were clueless on this point as indicated above.

 

Judge for yourself whether the above survey results indicate that America is tending toward socialism, communism, Marxism, fascism or something else; but the survey results, when coupled with recent violent demonstrations across America, point to us being in jeopardy of throwing away the libertarian principles the country was founded on that have produced the greatest wealth & standard of living in human history.