With the first scheduled Presidential debate this coming Thursday evening, I found myself reflecting on an article I recently read in The Philadelphia Citizen by The Hon. Michael Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia, 2008-2016. In the article, Nutter addresses the moderators of the debate – Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. Before asking the heavy-duty policy questions, he suggests they start by having the two participants answer questions from the US Citizenship Test. For example: Name two authors of the Federalist Papers? What is the Hatch Act? Which President first recognized the state of Israel? As you probably know, the USCIS administers the test in 2 parts: a) Civics and government, and b) English proficiency. Both tests are oral and take place in front of an immigration officer.
With thousands upon thousands of citizen applicants having passed this test (including former First Lady Melania Trump), how well would our two presidential candidates fare on the Citizenship Test? My rarely unbiased guess is that President Biden would do pretty well. For better or worse, he’s spent his life immersed in the functioning of our national government. He knows the country and its history backwards and forward. He’s a walking-talking civics lesson.
(BTW Joe Biden may be old, but he wasn’t in Congress when the Hatch Act passed. That was 1939.)
How about former President Trump? My guess is that he wouldn’t do well. A person has only to answer 10 civics and government questions correctly to pass, but Mr. Trump lacks the intellectual curiosity and essential knowledge to meet even the lowest possible threshold. This is not a secret. Donald Trump has been a public figure for over 50 years. He is well known as someone who doesn’t read, doesn’t care a lick about history and civics, and truly detests academics, researchers, and any person whom he knows to be smarter than he. And please remember, the man who claims to be “a very stable genius” has already muffed the “Who is Frederic Douglass?” question on the test. That was in 2017 when he praised Douglass for “(doing) an amazing job” despite having died in 1895. It should go without saying that a person who couldn’t possibly pass the Citizenship Test should never be elected to high office, but this is 2024. Perhaps when Mr. Trump stumbles over “What are the first three words of the Constitution?,” we can all shout – WE THE PEOPLE. And we’re way past done with you.
Tags: donald-trump, education, history, news, politics
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