How many of you took civics/government classes in high school?

[BlindTiresias]

30. Honestly?

I think if we are going to go the whole civics angle it is because there is very little political imagination here or any instilling of values that can give people a political imagination for the future, and our form of government only further frustrates this as there is a long and drawn out process in which inputs and outputs are only weakly linked and most of the time people don't benefit from them anyway.

In essence you are asking people to get excited about a years long process with very slow movement where the odds of a desirable output are not great. Just a basic understanding of human psychology should tell you this alone is not sufficient to interest people. This is even further compounded by the fact that being politically active takes a lot of time and for gains which, frankly, are unlikely and easily reversed.

The fact that any criticism along the lines I am giving is met by sanctimonious statements bordering on religious dogmatism about the importance of the constitution and a centuries old republican form of government doesn't help matters either. Is it any surprise many (most?) people just give up?