And These People Vote...

From a Yahoo! news article yesterday (Americans Flunk Simple 3-Question Political Survey):

Some news audiences are more politically savvy than others, according to a new poll, with readers of The New Yorker and similar high-brow magazines being the most knowledgeable.

The survey, conducted between April 30 and June 1 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, measured the political knowledge of 3,612 U.S. adults. Participants were asked to name the controlling party of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. secretary of state and Great Britain's prime minister.

Overall, just 18 percent of participants answered all three questions correctly.

Think about that last number… 18%. Fewer than one in five could answer three simple civics questions correctly. OK, I’ll give you the Gordon Brown question, as few Americans are politically aware where furriners are concerned. But I’d venture a guess that the results would have been the same had the survey asked respondents to name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court instead of the UK’s prime minister… possibly lower, even. Lest you think it’s all about ed-u-ma-kay-shun… think again:

However, several news audiences with relatively low proportions of college graduates also scored well on the news quiz. Just 31 percent of regular "Hannity & Colmes" viewers are college graduates. Even still, 42 percent Hannity viewers got perfect scores on the political knowledge quiz, compared with 44 percent of NPR listeners.

Which, of course, substantiates the thought that some sort of intellectual “means testing” should be required of all voters. That’s not elitist sort of thinking… it’s merely prudent. Coz uninformed voters could possibly elect a glib someone with a great smile and not much else. Like this guy…

I never get tired of this image, btw. This is the third time I've posted it.