Students Accept Majority Tyranny

Last week I was asked by a testing group out west to help grade some essays that students wrote. I apologize for not being too specific- I always fear for my future employment when I write posts like this. Thousands of students from the area took this test, which was designed to evaluate how well students understood how government worked in our society. These students all took either a semester or year-long course in government prior to taking this class, and all the students who took the test were either seniors or juniors in high school (17 or 18 years of age).

I personally graded over a thousand of these essays over several days of work. In doing so, I was able to read first hand what the students in our classrooms thought and believed, and what I read chilled me.

The test asked students to discuss the advantages of being in the majority party in Congress compared to being in minority party. The correct answers included being able to control the agenda, controlling debate, having the presiding officer, setting the rules for debate, and having their majority also reflected in committees. The majority party was put in place by citizens in free elections and should have these powers. In general, students were unable to identify a single advantage listed above, and the average score for these students was just above a zero. After years of school and a class on government, they knew almost nothing about government. But my point is not that the students are not being taught, because they are being taught. My point is what they are being taught.

According to most of the students (about 2/3rds), the advantage of being the majority party in Congress, like the Democrats are today, is that they can pass laws that favor themselves, they can vote to transfer money from the minority party's districts and supports to the majority party's districts and supporters, that being in the majority means they can pay themselves more money and the minority party less, that being in the majority means that they can tax anybody they want, and can do 'whatever they want.' The phrase 'the majority party can do whatever they want' was written on over half of the essays that were written.

Let me point out again that this test was about government and was taken by thousands of students- roughly about 200,000 high school students who had just taken a class on government. Let me point out again that since I graded a large number of these, my observations could be considered roughly within the realms of statistical accuracy.

The overwhelming thought that I left with was that students in our nation, the youth and future of our country, are totally okay and fine with majority tyranny. In their minds, there is nothing wrong with one party, just because it has more, putting in place laws and policies that favor their supporters over others. In my class, I pound majority rule with minority rights, and I talk about the problems of democracy and why we went with a republic, but most teachers, in fact almost all teachers, seem to be giving students the impression that minorities do not have rights and that our nation is a democracy.

The future of our nation is mentally and morally okay with a majority group enriching itself and advancing itself at the cost of the minority group.

The future of our nation does not understand government, history, or economics, based on this test, and for that matter writes poorly and reasons even worse. The Constitution is almost never mentioned and as far as students know, it might as well not even exist. But as our nation slides into uneducated, unsophisticated, unlearned, unreasoning idiots, they are becoming more okay with tyranny.

They are okay with the President doing 'whatever he wants,' students are okay with 'Congress doing whatever it wants,' and after months of government classes they are okay with the majority party 'doing whatever it wants.' This chills me, especially because right now, the Democrats are taking advantage of this 'crisis' to funnel billions to groups like ACORN that will work to keep them in a permanent majority. A Democrat permanent majority will do whatever it wants, will enrich itself at your expense, and will spread the wealth from you to other Democrats. Corruption and tyranny will increase, and America will be lost- and the future of our nation is okay with that.

Sometimes people question where I get my ideas on government from, and ask for 'evidence' that students are not learning what they need to learn in schools and instead are being indoctrinated with liberal left-wing propaganda. This is evidence. My own personal experiences after reading thousands of students own writings demonstrate it. I just hope you now believe me.