Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is in hot water for getting two out of eight people correct when listing individuals who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Greene, who earlier in the day was hit with a flurry of criticism for falsely claiming that Donald Trump won her state of Georgia in...
I don’t think the barrier should be "do you know history trivia?’ but rather “can you read and understand a wikipedia article?”
Except that would immediately turn into Jim Crow era literacy tests and be used for evil. You’d want an electorate that cares and a press that asks revealing questions, though.
I mean the Jim crow literacy test thing was used against voters. These are people that are supposed to govern. I kinda draw a distinction there.
Yes I do believe that voters and the press should be caring more and asking more revealing questions, but media literacy in this country is low, voter involvement is low, and our press is nothing more than arms of the ruling class so they rarely ever ask the necessary questions to allow voters to truly understand who’s on the ballot.
If we had any sort of “you must pass this test to be an elected official”, it would without a doubt be used against minorities.
I would love to have that kind of test, but I don’t know how to have one that wouldn’t be corrupted.
I can excuse someone for not knowing details because not everybody is a history major (hell I don’t even know who all signed that document), but these people build their whole identity and politics around jingoism, so they better back it up.
We’re not talking trivia here. You should know basic history of the country that you govern. If you don’t know that, make room for somebody that did pay basic attention in class. These are things that if you don’t know them, you can learn them by investing a few days to weeks at most.