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Souter’s defenders said it was wrong for opponents of the decision to start a petition for his hometown of Weare, N.H., to take his 200-year-old farmhouse and make it into the “Lost Liberty Hotel.”
Despite our differences on that issue and many more, I’ll agree with the man on one thing: The republic is being eroded by ignorance.
Souter spoke recently at a meeting of the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary. The O’Connor Project initially focused on “how to stick up for the judiciary” when it was formed three years ago.
Its members soon learned the real problem wasn’t attacks on judicial independence but “the debasement, and in some places the disappearance, of knowledge of the structure and work of the government.”
Souter cited surveys that showed that most Americans cannot name the three branches of government.
He may have been citing the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s annual test of civic literacy. Here are a few of the institute’s conclusions about Americans’ knowledge of their government and its origins:
- Only 21 percent know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
- Almost 40 percent incorrectly believe the power to declare war belongs to the president.
- Barely half know that Congress shares authority over U.S. foreign policy with the president. Almost a quarter believe such power is shared by Congress and the United Nations.
- Only 27 percent know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States.
- Less than one in five know the phrase “a wall of separation” between church and state comes from a letter by Thomas Jefferson.
Almost half incorrectly believe it can be found in the Constitution.
In his speech, Souter referred to Benjamin Franklin’s famous answer, after the 1787 Constitutional Convention, as to what kind of government the nation would have: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
“The lesson we have been learning over the past couple of years is that it is being lost,” Souter said. “It is lost when it is not understood.”
Contact Daily Journal reporter Errol Castens at (662) 281-1069 or errol.castens@djournal.com. Read his blog at http://nems360.com/pages/oxford_and_environs.
As every school child who stayed awake in 9th grade civics knows, only Congress can declare war. As every one who was briefly awake in 11th grade history knows, presidents have been committing US troops to battle without Congressional declaration for 200 years. Now you assert that "The idea that absolute and sole power to declare war belongs to the president has been aquired (sic), accepted and or embraced during the last eight years of the Bush/Cheney regime."
Please either cite a reference to some source that quotes the former president, or other ranking administration official claiming that the president has the "sole and absolute power to declare war," or choose one of the following explanations for this astounding claim:
* got caught up in rhetorical exuberance and exaggerated, or
* did not realize that more US military adventures have been undeclared than formally declared war, or
* deliberate prevarication?
Ah, ah...don't go back to my not reading the article. That dog won't hunt, and you know it.
By the way, I am as disgusted by the inept (and possibly criminal) actions of the previous administration as anyone, but the only purpose served by such wildly inflated claims is to discredit Bush critics in the eyes of the public.
Cheers.
By the way, what WAS that article about?
Don't be so hard on yourself. There are forty-two million adult Americans struggling with literacy and comprehension just like you.
I'll give you credit for trying.
Best wishes!
Approximately 700 words on the topic of the republic being eroded by ignorance, complete with examples, and silly me! I fell for it. I thought it was about the republic being eroded by ignorance. Just shows what I don't know.
You da man!
Best wishes and hopes to you too, etc.
On the contrary, Castens was lamenting the fact that our ignorance of our civic culture is eroding our republic, and you chimed right in with a text-book perfect example of it. Whatever his limitations and missteps -- and their name is Legion, GWB did not invent the practice of military adventurism. My list of wars initiated by presidents without Congressional sanction was only partial. Our republic has been plagued with such misuse of the power of Commander-in-Chief right from the beginning, and the citizenry have meekly accepted it.
When I was a kid, everything was FDR's fault. My parents' generation blamed everything on Hoover.
In my young adulthood, LBJ was the villain, then Nixon, then Reagan, then Clinton, etc.(The only thing the country seemed to agree on was that Carter was a huge and incompetent mistake...too insignificant to even waste blame on. Ten years from now, every ugly baby will be laid at President Obama's door. This kind of scapegoating is counter-productive in that it diverts us from the task of analyzing trends, studying historical precedents, and considering the Constitutional foundations of the republic.
As for "warm fuzzies...," well, you got me there. I haven't the foggiest idea of what you're talking about.
Best wishes, etc.
Do you only read the comments posted or have you ever actually read the articles or columns, Woolhat? I doubt that you've read this column due to you completely missed the point. However, if reading comments and having your anonymous blog name feautured on nems.360 gives you an intellectual and warm/fuzzy feeling, you go right on commenting so that the rest of us 'non-Republican' types can be entertained by you. It's obvious how you were given the anonymous blog name'Woolhat'.
I won't spell it out for you but if you get the chance, pull the 'Woolhat' from your eyes and read the column...perhaps you'll see the point...just maybe.
"The idea that absolute and sole power to declare war belongs to the president has been aquired, accepted and or embraced during the last eight years of the Bush/Cheney regime." ???
Hey, what about the undeclared naval war with France during the Adams Administration? Or even earlier, the Whiskey Rebellion in the sainted Washington Administration? Or the countless Indian wars? Or the War Between The States? What about the Philippine Insurrection? Or the Korean War? Or Vietnam? Huh?
C'mon, Homie. Done any reading? Or are you just citing talking points from some website?
There's enough blame to go around here, and your ignorant rants aren't helping the opposition cause.
Go to the library, man!
It wasnt necessarily lost but trampled upon and cast out during the Bush/Cheney reign of terror upon civil liberties and constitutional rights.
This is but one of the many reasons Republicans have been marginilized and were heavily defeated during the 2012 elections.
Also, the newly discovered C-Street frat house situation in Washington D.C. with the growing list of Republican officials that are currently having issues with 'adultery' is not helping to garner much enthusiasm for the former moral high ground bunch these days either!