citizenship

These 40 questions have been carefully designed to test your qualifications as a citizen. The test is self-administered, but please be honest. Answer each question with “Agree” or “Disagree.” The more questions you can answer with “Agree,” the better-qualified you are to be a good citizen of 21st century America.

Politicians really care about the people’s welfare.

The media really care about truth.

Big Business really cares about free markets.

Education administrators really care about learning.

Neoconservatives really care about freedom and democracy.

Generals really care about their men.

Medicare has made health care more affordable.

The Federal Reserve knows how to manage the economy.

The Supreme Court understands the Constitution best.

George Bush understands what’s going on in the world better than you do.

Good citizens should trust their government.

Scientific inventions always make life better.

American education aims for excellence and equality.

Random body searches of air passengers help stop terrorists.

Other countries want to be like America.

America is a Christian nation.

America only fights wars for freedom and democracy.

John F. Kennedy was a great leader.

American living standards have always improved and will continue to do so.

We fought World War II because of Hitler’s persecution of the Jews.

The stock market should always go up.

The American who has most resembled Jesus Christ is Abraham Lincoln.

Public schools make good citizens.

Despite some fanatics, Islam is a religion of peace, as President Bush has assured us.

All religions are similar and should be tolerated.

Our Constitution establishes the proposition that “all men are created equal.”

Our Constitution guarantees a “wall of separation” between religion and government.

The Founding Fathers intended America to always be “a nation of immigrants.”

We are fortunate that leadership of our nation has been entrusted to a wise, godly man like President Bush.

The Civil War was fought to free the slaves.

Walter Cronkite is “the most trustworthy man in America.”

American soldiers never commit atrocities like enemy soldiers do.

School integration in the U.S. since the 1954 Supreme Court decision has been one of history’s great success stories.

I watch the evening news and read USA TODAY so I am always well-informed about the world.

Affirmative action helps fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream that all Americans will be judged by the content of their character rather than by their skin color.

Mexican immigrants are strengthening America’s family values.

The press is always on guard to expose wrongdoing by public officials.

Bill Bennett is helping to restore old-fashioned virtues in America.

Only the U.S. and Israel, and perhaps Britain, can be trusted with nuclear weapons.

Wherever there is a serious social or economic problem, the government should fix it.


Clyde Wilson

Clyde Wilson is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina where he was the editor of the multivolume The Papers of John C. Calhoun. He is the M.E. Bradford Distinguished Chair at the Abbeville Institute. He is the author or editor of over thirty books and published over 600 articles, essays and reviews and is co-publisher of www.shotwellpublishing.com, a source  for unreconstructed Southern books.

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