Political Smarts

So, apparently, most elected officials score a 44% or lower on this Civic Literacy Report .

Me?  Glad you asked!  78%. Yes, I'm smarter than most elected officials.  I say that with great humility and a little incredulity towards my elected officials.

You answered 26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 %
Answers to Your Missed Questions:
Question #4 - B. Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
Question #7 - D. Gettysburg Address
Question #12 - B. the Supreme Court struck down most legal restrictions on it in Roe v. Wade
Question #13 - E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason
Question #14 - B. stressed the sinfulness of all humanity
Question #31 - A. an increase in a nation’s productivity
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person
Of those, yes, it's ridiculous that I missed #7 and #33.

Your score?  Post it in the comments!

8 comments:

Anonymous,  November 24, 2008 at 1:09 PM  

Not having read your answers, I got the exact same score, and some of the same questions wrong. Clearly I know very little about taxation (and #33 is a trick question). Also, as a feminist, I am ashamed to have missed 12, but whatever.

Becca


here's what I missed:

Question #4 - B. Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
Question #8 - C. appoint additional Supreme Court justices who shared his views
Question #12 - B. the Supreme Court struck down most legal restrictions on it in Roe v. Wade
Question #15 - E. Thomas Jefferson’s letters
Question #27 - A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
Question #30 - C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person

Anonymous,  November 24, 2008 at 5:06 PM  

I'm in the same boat with you and Becca - same score, many overlapping wrong answers!

I definitely thought #12 was a trick question because it seemed so obvious...silly me.

~ Sarah

Answers to Your Missed Questions:
Question #4 - B. Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
Question #7 - D. Gettysburg Address
Question #12 - B. the Supreme Court struck down most legal restrictions on it in Roe v. Wade
Question #14 - B. stressed the sinfulness of all humanity
Question #21 - B. Germany and Japan
Question #27 - A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person

Crusher November 24, 2008 at 11:35 PM  

I rule! Y'all drool!!!

90.91% (30 out of 33)

got some of the same questions wrong (Didn't look at your answers...

Question #7 - D. Gettysburg Address
Question #31 - A. an increase in a nation’s productivity
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person

Travis Greene November 25, 2008 at 1:45 PM  

87.88%. I missed the Gettysburg address question too, for some reason. I guess I always assumed Lincoln was quoting something else.

#33 still seems wrong to me.

Rev. Jeremy Smith November 25, 2008 at 2:48 PM  

Yeah, we all missed #33. I reread it and it just doesn't work for me. Is it just the best answer outta all the worse ones?

Anonymous,  December 5, 2008 at 8:03 AM  

96.97...but I'm a grad student in Social Science. I missed #26: Business profit is? I was thinking about assets and liabilities because that's whats been discussed in the business world recently due to the financial crisis. However, I think that this question, as well as a few of the others, shouldn't be on a civics test. This one, at least, was factual. Asking why "free markets" work better than "centrally planned economies" is a loaded, biased question with many possible answers, including "I reject the framing of the question. This test overall has deep biases that make it nearly useless for the determination of a citizen's "civic literacy." Grr. Not that it makes me mad or anything. :p

Rev. Jeremy Smith December 5, 2008 at 8:17 AM  

Well done Anonymous! I'm totally with you regarding the framing of some of the questions.

...and tell us how you really feel. ;-)

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