Poll: Americans know more about The Simpsons than the US Constitution

I would like to know what the 'Amendments' were ammended from,
What were the originals??

Can anyone answer this?

This is not a conspiracy. It's reality. You could go to any friggin' country in the world and ask the same type of questions with the same results. Some people do not care while others do. That my friends is called reality. Check check... Reality check.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.



here are the articles of the constitiution:

Preamble ["We the people...."]


Article I [The Legislative Branch]

..Section 1. [Legislative Power Vested]

..Section 2. [House of Representatives]

..Section 3. [Senate]

..Section 4. [Elections of Senators and Representatives]

..Section 5. [Rules of House and Senate]

..Section 6. [Compensation and Privileges of Members]

..Section 7. [Passage of Bills]

..Section 8. [Scope of Legislative Power]

..Section 9. [Limits on Legislative Power]

..Section 10. [Limits on States]


Article II [The Presidency]

..Section 1. [Election, Installation, Removal]

..Section 2. [Presidential Power]

..Section 3. [State of the Union, Receive Ambassadors, Laws Faithfully Executed, Commission Officers]

..Section 4. [Impeachment]


Article III [The Judiciary]

..Section 1. [Judicial Power Vested]

..Section 2. [Scope of Judicial Power]

..Section 3. [Treason]


Article IV [The States]

..Section 1. [Full Faith and Credit]

..Section 2. [Privileges and Immunities, Extradiction, Fugitive Slaves]

..Section 3. [Admission of States]

..Section 4. [Guarantees to States]


Article V [The Amendment Process]


Article VI [Legal Status of the Constitution]


Article VII [Ratification]

Amendments:

Amendment I [Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, Petition (1791)]

Amendment II [Right to Bear Arms (1791)]

Amendment III [Quartering of Troops (1791)]

Amendment IV [Search and Seizure (1791)]

Amendment V [Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Self-Incrimination, Due Process (1791)]

Amendment VI [Criminal Prosecutions - Jury Trial, Right to Confront and to Counsel (1791)]

Amendment VII [Common Law Suits - Jury Trial (1791)]

Amendment VIII [Excess Bail or Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment (1791)]

Amendment IX [Non-Enumerated Rights (1791)]

Amendment X [Rights Reserved to States (1791)]

Amendment XI [Suits Against a State (1795)]

Amendment XII [Election of President and Vice-President (1804)]

Amendment XIII [Abolition of Slavery (1865)]

Amendment XIV [Privileges and Immunities, Due Process, Equal Protection, Apportionment of Representatives, Civil War Disqualification and Debt (1868)]

Amendment XV [Rights Not to Be Denied on Account of Race (1870)]

Amendment XVI [Income Tax (1913)]

Amendment XVII [Election of Senators (1913)

Amendment XVIII [Prohibition (1919)]

Amendment XIX [Women's Right to Vote (1920)

Amendment XX [Presidential Term and Succession (1933)]

Amendment XXI [Repeal of Prohibition (1933)]

Amendment XXII [Two Term Limit on President (1951)]

Amendment XXIII [Presidential Vote in D.C. (1961)]

Amendment XXIV [Poll Tax (1964)]

Amendment XXV [Presidential Succession (1967)]

Amendment XXVI [Right to Vote at Age 18 (1971)]

Amendment XXVII [Compensation of Members of Congress (1992)]

Usually the first ten are set aside as the bill of rights, but Cornell didnt do that....

anyway here is the link for their site www.law.cornell.edu...

This is a very sad reflection of just how destroyed our education system has become after 40+ years of democratic rule. Nowadays schools probably are not allowed to treach it. Yet the democratic teachers union is allowed to teach left-wing ideaologies but won't teach what is most important the youth of our country.....it's history.

Our history has seldom been taught in its true form.
How many Native Americans were killed by the settlers? Who founded the Black Panthers? Explain Reaganomics. There are a lot of things in American History that should be taught, but are not. They spend more time teaching you about George Washington's cherry tree incident, or Paul Revere, or Ben Franklins kite. How many of these things are even relevant?

Its no wonder our education system is quickly falling behind the rest of the world. Are our children forced to teach themselves true history? Its no wonder so many kids drop out. We dont teach anything relevant to their lives. We need to teach both the good and the bad. How else can we expect our future generations to improve upon the last?

We spend so much time trying to raise CEOs, or engineers, or scientists. Lets raise some humanitarians. Lets teach kids about our economic activities abroad. Lets teach them how to get crack out of the ghettos, or meth out of the trailor. Lets teach them to better interact with their families. Lets teach them more sex ed. Lets stop all these broken homes and single parents. Lets raise a generation of great thinkers, and problem solvers. Lets raise a generation that will question leadership. Lets raise our children to strive for the greater good, rather than the greater greed. Lets raise a generation that will realize that not all is lost.

So long as we can improve education, year after year, there is hope.

[edit on 2-3-2006 by DaFunk13]

When I was in elementary schools in the '70's & 80's, we were taught the history of our country, from the beginning to the indians & black panthers.
Nowadays, due to PC extremeism, children are not allowed to learn that; teachers are not held responsible for their teaching, yet the unions demand higher & higher pay with tenure after 5 years. No wonder people want vouchers for private schools, the teachers there actually teach.

[edit on 2-3-2006 by ferretman2]

When those groups were in the forefront they didnt have much choice to explain it, but these days, they just want people to play ball, not question the game. Its tyranny in its most hidden form.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Well if people made a show that was one like five times a day for a decade about the US Constitution. Then people would no more about it.

Wouldnt exactly be a show that brings in the ratings

Exactly, the simpsons have been on since i was a little kid. The constitution is taught in maybe 1 or 2 classes throughout school.


Besides, have you noticed when people are interviewed on tv it always seems to be the least intelligent that volunteer. " YEAH i seen it, it was crazy....flying like it didnt know where it was goin, and shootin them there laser beams phew! phew! phew!.....i was gonna get my gun and shoot back but it dissapeared faster than my granpappys hair."


I never really paid attention in this part of class, but i can easily tell you about the constitution.

Public schools in America are set at a pace for the slowest learners in the class. If there is just one child who cannot understand simple addition such as 2+0=2, out of a class of 20, then I garuntee you there is a social scientist out there whining and bitching about how the class must accomodate the child by scrutinizing the education of the rest of the children by making curriculum redundant (slow down! they say). Placing such children in classes specified for their pace would be discrimination is the immediate answer to any other solution than reducing the level of pace of the class, they aregue the child will feel abandoned, neglected and worthless in society. This is what happens.

These same social scientist come up with politically correct methods and curriculum for other classes, such as history.

These are the same people that demand that elementary and public education is not about teaching a child, but allowing them to be children and have fun, and that forcing them to learn division and multiplication or any section of the Constitution before the age of eight, bastardizes the child and negates any creative response in a child.

I think America experiences too much of wat I will call pseudo-higher cognitive thinking. I will try to summerize it by saying too many social scientist take their work literally and truley believe they understand how society functions and, and that they already have an agenda set previously to any work they will do.! I think it stems from the teaching of Karl Marx. To condense what he taught is to say he believed in the abolition of private property and a universal standard of living for everyone. The social scientist here in America are politcal alies.


Politicians love social scientist because they can point to their work and say "See, this is what the scientist say, and they are correct because they are scientist". They are the pets (or should I say puppets?) of politicians because their work justifies the abolition of rights and erosion of freedom and reckless spending of tax dollars.

These people crap on society by resorting to semantical debate and pseudo-empericial methods of experimentation/obeservation (this is exactly what politicians do!). Many of the social scientist are not scientist (they are more similar to being a politician!), many of them are, albeit there are some good social scientist in this country. But the field is plagued with moronic observations and childish antics. The social science field, much like field of chemistry/physics circa 16th century, needs a change in its methods and procedures: the way it operates.

I was listening to a radio broadcast by Neal Boortz one day last week and he brought up a great point about the American educational system and the teachers unions. Think of it this way, public schools are government run, government operated and government sanctioned. It teaches a governmentally approved curriculum by teachers who are unionized. I don't know about anyone else, but when I think of the word efficiency, no governmentalized entity instantly springs to mind. Ever been to the DMV? Exactly. Ever been to the Social Security office? What would normally take minutes to do normally takes HOURS. So much red tape and B.S. involved that it stalls the entire process. And the single biggest reason that the school systems here suck is simple - no competition. Just like the DMV can move at its own pace and jerk you around and not care 2 cents how you are treated, so can the school systems. They have a monopoly on the teaching of our children. Sure you say, but there are private schools available. True, but in reality they are available only to the higher income families who can foot the bill. The other 95% of kids are stuck in the good ole public school system. Half the time they are too worried about getting shot at to care about the constitution or any other subject in the class room.

Boortz went on to make an analogy about how when his friends, who were Russian citizens, came to visit him in Georgia. They all decided to go to the local grocery store to buy some food to cook for dinner for his new guests. He said that as soon as they set foot into the store, the Russian man's wife began to sob uncontrollably. The reason being that she had never been to America or any country where free enterprise existed. Instead, she was forced to shop at grocery stores that were run by the Russian government. One store for vegitables. One store for bread. One for dairy. And one seperate for meat, when it was available. They were all in poor condition and there was virtually no product variation and very little to choose from. So when she went into this market in America that was full of rows upon rows upon rows of every imagineable product you could think of, she was blown away. The reason that store is as friendly and well stocked and hospitable as it is - free enterprise. COMPETITION. They know that if they do not do a great job to earn your business, someone else will. If these teachers and school systems had to compete with other schools for our childrens attendance and your dollars, or face ruin, you would see a whole new ballgame unfold. God I hate the DMV

You have voted DarkRitual13 for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have one more vote left for this month.

Credit for wisdom he admits isn't his...

The HST sig helped too.

mahalo

We discussed this in my AP Government class, everyone had a good time laughing. But I went around to my friends and their families and asked them what their rights were, the person that got the most right knew seven. I'm embarassed for all of them.

This thread seems more like a biased attempt by the poster to try and spread discontent and poor imagery on the US culture and society.

The US culture is probably the most publicized society around the world. Its very easy for any haters to come in and try and blast what they think is a weakness. However, if we were to take a look at their knowledge of their own laws, bills, and constitutions in a simular fashion,...they defray from the question and try to say...."Um uh...Um uh....no the topic is on you dumb americans...not me!"

However the fact is,...this is a poll taken on 1000 american adults. Hardly an accurate polling i might say. Who knows where exactly it was taken and in what locations. Im sure more accurate results would still show that most americans do know simpson figures better than specifics of the constitution. However you cannot really judge someones IQ on whether they know this or not.

Would you label Jet Li a dumb martial artist if he couldn't tell you all the specific history of martial arts?..No, techniques and the art comes natural to him since he has been doing it almost since he was born. American's know their freedoms and simply just need to know the resource if they wanna look at the specifics. Who cares if someone has the constitution memorized in their head or not. It doesn't prove their IQ as a human being

Carburetor

[edit on 12-3-2006 by Mr Carburetor]

This isnt about IQ. This is about knowing the specific freedoms we actually have. So many people run around spouting how their constitutional rights are being trampled, and this poll shows that the majority of us have no clue what we are talking about. I hate to say it...but its true.

I think you are only trying to chocolate coat a turd here. It is embarassing.

Originally posted by DaFunk13So many people run around spouting how their constitutional rights are being trampled, and this poll shows that the majority of us have no clue what we are talking about.

Noooo, these are not the people that "run around spouting how their constitutional rights are being trampled"....these are the people who would blindly follow the government and not ask questions because they don't realize what their rights are. BIG difference.

[edit on 13-3-2006 by Jamuhn]

Actually, I think its both. Remember, out of a thousand only 1 knew all of them. Are you trying to say that all those polled are sheep?

i doo two no mi constipational writes


thats al u nede two no

It's so nice to see the people (whatever country you're from) are still fooled into perpetuating the divide on conquer agenda. Thanks to people like this we can be sure they will succeed. I guess if it's a choice between selling out 99% of humanity or boosting your ego, the ego will win. Good job in playing "their" game.

Originally posted by Valorian
I would like to know what the 'Amendments' were ammended from,
What were the originals??

Can anyone answer this?

They are additions to the original constitution.

Amendment: The act of changing for the better; improvement.

Well it’s obvious that the constitution needs to be rewritten as a cartoon. (maybe a musical?) But seriously, is there a dumb down version of the constitution? Sorry for all you scholars and elitists out there but the language is not exactly basic. (could be dumbing down at work)

But seriously I’ll give an example but in National Treasure when Cage is reading it, its not very clear then he modernizes it for his partner, (and the audience) and it’s a lot clearer.

You know like a Coles Note. They have that for Shakespeare and the Bible why not for the constitution?

Personally I’ve read the Canadian Constitution Acts and the Bill and Rights numerous time, and you know with all those footnotes, and arcane language, I must admit that I would know a lot more about the Simpsons and Star Trek.