Are You Smarter Than A Citizen?
By Greg L | 3 July 2008 | Patriotism | 16 Comments
MSNBC has a little quiz up that purports to be similar to the one given to immigrants seeking U.S. Citizenship, and I took a quick swipe at it. I got an embarrassingly low 75%, blowing through a bunch of questions without really reading them, and in once case keying on the fact that New York’s delegation to the Second Continental Congress did not vote to adopt the Declaration of Independence because they didn’t have voting instructions from their legislature, instead of seeing that there was a better choice for the question regarding which state wasn’t one of the original thirteen colonies. I’m sure if readers take their time on this, they should really risk missing only one of these questions without having to resort to cheating.
It’s hard to evaluate whether someone, a high school student, an immigrant, or just someone who wants to demonstrate to themself that they’re fully worthy of casting a vote, really understands what America is in a multiple choice test. The philosopy and concepts that are the foundation of this nation don’t lend themselves to multiple-choise questions very easily, prompting the new version of the citizenship test to include some essay questions, I understand. In case you’re interested in a more probing question about our government in addition to the MSNBC quiz, here’s one for you which I will leave to your fellow readers to critique:
If there was no government that could grant, protect, enforce or otherwise ensure you could enjoy rights, as someone who believes in the philosophy of natural rights that is the foundation of our democracy, would you have any rights? Why?
Please let a few folks answer the question before we start grading, just so we allow people to have a fair opportunity to get this right. I’m sure plenty will.
H/T: Virginia Dems
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed. You can also pingback or trackback from your own site.
16 Comments
Leave a Reply
Views: 473
Loading ...
90%
Didn’t know Maine wasn’t one of the 13 original colonies, and said 17 instead of 27 amendments. Oops.
95%.
Missed the one “What are the first words of the Constitution?” Thought it asked for the first words in the Declaration of Independence.
Dyslexics of the world - untie!
95%. I second guessed myself on the line of presidential succession. I should’ve gone with my gut.
My wife scored a 90%! I was pleasantly surprised to that find out. She got the term of Senators and the number of representatives wrong.
85%…also got Senate term wrong, number of Representative wrong, and the first words of the Constitution…was thinking We The People was the Declaration of Independence. Eh, that’s what I get for learning this stuff in middle school.
95%, missing on the number of amendments (I put 23 instead of 27.) If Jay Leno did this on his little Jaywalking skit, I think a true representative sample would not have gotten more than 30% of the questions right. Tell me I am wrong here… I’d love to be. But I doubt it.
Yes, because we are well endowed (except for maybe Gerry Connolly) by our creator - Vger.
I lost intrest at question #5
5. Which of the following is NOT a right outlined in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence?
Nuance anyone?
Got to love the MSM.
I think the “test” asks too many simple facts and not enough about the values and ideals that should bind us together as Americans.
Well, Bwana crows because Bwana scored 100%…and he has to say regarding question five:
____________
Which of the following is NOT a right outlined in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence?
- Life
-Liberty
-Right to bear arms
-Pursuit of Happiness
______________
I guess I overlooked the “nuance” here…
100% and I’m just a lowly teenager.
(I did just finish watching the HBO Miniseries “John Adams” so I knew about NY)
I think they should make the citizenship test harder and require EVERYONE (with the exception of the disabled of course) to pass this in order to vote.
100%.
As for the “nuance” and “loving” the MSM, these are the very types of questions those wishing to become naturalized citizens have to answer. This wasn’t some random quiz put together by some “liberal” reporter at MSNBC.
I got 100% as well, but I think they changed the test, because there is nothing about New York in it. Maybe too many people got that question wrong, and MSM dumbed it down for their readers.
I beat all of you! I got 110%. Didn’t you see the extra credit question?
bwana- Where’ve you been? Saw Judy today. Still looks and sounds like a parrot.
95% - Got the number of Constitutional amendments wrong - 27 instead of 23. Other than that, not too hard. Thankfully, they still teach most of this stuff in public school (or did back in the early 90’s, anyway).
95%
Rob, they did in the mid to late 70’s as well
That Amendment question gets ya. 23 just looms large to be picked 
Got a 90% . . . missed on the number of Reps and Amendments