Possible effects of poll testing

[Chizzang]

In theory, yes. Yet we are now witnessing an unlawful executive branch usurping existing constitutional safeguards of voting law, attempting to permanently hijack the electoral system.

Don't think my statement is valid? Look at California.

Frankly, I don't feel that the non-Democrats are responding adequately to this threat to our Nation's democratic system.

Boehner and Mitchell have dropped the ball. Appropriately they should appoint a Special Counsel to "investigate" Executive Branch actions, and said Special Counsel should be funded and empowered to initiate legal estoppel: Then, BURY the White House in legal action.
Though it may seem in the last 18 months initiating legal action would be counter-productive, much of these "Executive Order" end runs will ultimately be reversed, so initiating the actions now simply hastens the inevitable.

Sure its valid. Where you been for the last 30 years?

Exactly...

A man needs to be cautions and aware of "what eats at him"
Each political generation and cultural generation gets to build their own version of America
worrying about what they do with their power is not productive

That's why I laugh when I hear these old farts announce their personal hatred of "The Now"
They struggle with this - but - they are irrelevant to "The Now"

If America goes headlong down the road of runaway socialism
"everybody gets a medal" for graduating 3rd grade
Then so be it

I won't be around or required to fix it
and it won't matter - those who are around will be the only available force to "DO THE FIXING"

[JohnStOnge]

If you think that knowing about our system isn't important to voting that's fine. The point I'm trying to make is that it's the Democratic Party that benefits from voting among the least informed. And it's not only that they depend on getting a majority among such voters. They depend on getting an overwhelming majority among them.

And it goes beyond just our system of government. Check out, for instance, how the different racial groups scored on the most recent (2012) NAEP test on Economics:

White 160
Asian 160
Hispanic 138
Native American 136
Black 131

Based on the means and standard deviations if you were to exclude the lowest one third (33.3...%) of scorers on the Economics test to go on and vote only about 48 percent of Blacks and 50 percent of Hispanics in that cohort would be eligible to vote while about 78 percent of Whites could.

And yes I know that Asians and Jews score high and they tend to vote Democrat but they are small groups. We all know that for the most part, in national elections, it comes down to Whites tending to vote in a solid but relatively modest majority for Republicans while Blacks as well as Hispanics vote in overwhelming majorities for Democrats. When Obama beat Romney in 2012 Whites + Blacks + Hispanics were 95% of the vote. Whites, which accounted for 72% of the vote, voted for Romney by 59 to 39%. Blacks + Hispanics, which accounted for 23% of the vote, voted for Obama by 83 to 15%. Typical pattern, and I think any reasonable person would expect that if only around 50% of Blacks and Hispanics could vote while around 80% of Whites could the Democratic Party would have a real tough time winning a national election; at least in terms of popular vote for sure.

It's the same for any subject you pick too. The same basic picture. Geography. History, Anything. The vote among the least knowledgable and/or informed is CRITICAL to the Democratic Party in national elections.