PolitTech, a non-partisan political organization out of Texas Tech went to go see if George Mason students are “politically challenged.” And the results showed that they are astoundingly so. A handful of students were showed a picture of Joe Biden, Ronald Reagan, and Kim Kardashian. Students had trouble with or found it impossible to identify the two former, but none with the latter.
The results were not only astounding because the students didn’t know, but when it came to their attitude. When shown a picture of Biden, the current vice-president who is frequently a source for laughs and in the news, they were confident from the start they couldn’t identify who that was. This included a student who claimed to be majoring in “government and international politics.”
While many students seemed embarrassed to come to terms with how they couldn’t identify Biden or Reagan, one laughed it off, saying “I don’t really care about politics.” While another admitted he should be able to, “he also said “I don’t pay attention to a lot.” Clearly.
When it came to Reagan, students who answered correctly only seemed to do so on a lucky guess. Many guessed Nixon, including the government major, and one guessed Bill Clinton.
Students were also asked to name someone, besides Hillary Clinton, who was running for president. They had trouble doing that as well.
Not only did students have no trouble naming Kim Kardashian, but they laughed it off as they did so as well on that one.
The Daily Signal reported on the video, in the context of the disaster this spells for civics education. The mentioned the report from January, from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni released a survey with alarming results. “There is a crisis in American civic education,” the group pointed out.
The report made news most notably for how 10 percent of college students think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court.
