Why does ignorance of the Constitution seem to abound in this country, even among its leaders?

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2026/01/constitutional-ignorance-abounds-in.html

The suppression of the first amendment that Trump so blatantly advocates and tries to implement should be driving the GOP to extinction. Though it does appear to be doing some real damage to Republican chances at holding a Congressional majority, it isn't having the widespread effect that the Alien and Sedition Acts did 225 years ago. Is it because more Americans today are so completely ignorant of the Constitution, and lack the critical thinking skills to associate Trump's attempt to subvert the free press with a violation of this most sacred Constitutional protection?

Yes.

Leaving public education in the hands of the states, in the balance of power, has been a huge mistake. It has led to a huge gap in the student outcomes experienced from state to state. In states where education is regarded as an essential for the preservation of democracy, and valued as a means of raising the standard of living, the test scores, graduation rates and overall quality of the schools are all high. And generally, the voters in those states tend to favor the Democrats. In states where education is seen as a glorified babysitting service, budgets are cut whenever there's a tax reduction, and they'd rather spend millions on football stadiums with artificial turf where they can watch their kids bash each other's brains out than on learning math, or how to read, or, God forbid, how to correctly interpret the Constitution in a way that the differences in skin color, or ethnicity, or religious beliefs, gender, or political perspective don't matter when it comes to individual rights.

There is a reason why a President who uses the dumb-ass interpretation of politics to scam for votes wants to dismantle the Department of Education. And that is exactly why one of the first things any future Democratic majority needs to do is to double its budget, and make public education a power under the federal government. Students in places like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas or West Virginia should not be denied the opportunity to get the same kind of quality education that those in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Illinois, Maryland or California get.

Once that's complete, then the number of courses students receive throughout their grade school and high school years in American History, government, the Constitution and other Civics-related subjects should be implemented every single year, starting with Kindergarten. Common Core and the revamping of schools to increase instruction in technology, science and mathematics hasn't worked. The math and science scores are getting worse nationally, not better, and the time has crowded out the ability to teach important subjects like American history and government.

This is not the place for an apologetic on behalf of our hard working, underpaid school teachers. Any teacher in American public education who is doing their job, and knows what education is supposed to look like will say that the quality of education in most of our public schools is substandard and I know this, because I'm engaged in those kinds of discussions almost every day. I taught in a public, inner city high school in Houston, in a program aimed at recovering drop-outs who wanted to come back, and I saw teachers make do with few resources, sometimes spending their own money, in a state where teacher salaries already rank in the bottom 10% nationally, to try and provide students with opportunities. Many of them lined up at the private schools, when a job opened up, to take less pay and fewer benefits, but where the quality of education was higher.

[Norrrm]

1. Don't the leaders have a copy of the Trump Bible? It has the Constitution in it.

The WH and both Houses of Congress are republican controlled.

??? Oh, yeah!

??? Not really.

[Tadpole Raisin]

2. Money. Power. Corruption. Complete protection from prosecution

except a for maybe small fine which is is just a fraction of your gains and won’t require you to admit any wrongdoing.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. Excellent read. Kick & Rec

[samnsara]

4. i have a pocket size copy of the Constitution in my purse!!!

My Grandfather was Chief of Police and I found his pocket size copy of the constitution and I carry that with me all the time and I do read it. There are free copies on Amazon.

[Ferryboat]

5. I would add Internet awareness studies

Eastonia teaches students how to analyze information at a very young age.
How to spot disinformation, who benefits? How to follow the money.
The tools needed to navigate the online world safely with a critical eye to spot disinformation.

[lees1975]

6. Great idea.

There's not much instruction in critical thinking skills. Too much internet and social media, too much confusion.