The Shocking State of Americans’ Civic Illiteracy

[Geee]

Heritage Foundation:

This year’s Constitution Day marks 229 years since the signing of the U.S. Constitution and the establishment of our republic.

 

The Framers of our Constitution recognized that a general understanding of the nation’s laws, history, and government was central to the longevity of the republic. The United States is, as Benjamin Franklin described, “a republic, if you can keep it.”

 

How is the republic kept? First of all, by an informed citizenry. As Thomas Jefferson once declared, “It is every American’s right and obligation to read and interpret the Constitution for himself.”

 

In Federalist No. 1, Alexander Hamilton concurred: “The subject speaks to its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the union, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world.”