Civics should be required learning in every year of school

[MissMillie]

Jan. 6 Hearings Could Stymie Trump’s Attempt To Delegitimize Criminal Charges

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jan-6-hearings-could-stymie-trumps-attempt-to-delegitimize-criminal-charges/ar-AAYSAow?ocid=U483DHP&li=BBnb7Kz

When prosecutors go after mob bosses, people intuitively understand that ordering underlings to shake down businesses for protection money, sell drugs or even maim and kill those who defy them is both morally wrong and illegal.

But Trump, former prosecutors said, has benefited from the fact that Americans who don’t play close attention to the news — that is, most Americans — do not intuitively understand that trying to coerce foreign leaders into helping your campaign or coercing federal and state officials into overturning an election is similarly against the law.

***************************************

50 years after Watergate and Americans still don't recognize election tampering as a crime.

(Well, some do.... but they're the ones pointing at the made-up criminality.)

[2naSalit]

1. I agree.

Every semester should include a civics class. There's quite a bit to know but we can't have a representative government with an ignorant citizenry so incremental instruction would be the best idea.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. They don't even teach personal finance, and basic business and criminal law

let alone civics, Constitution, and politics.

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. I was just talking about this to my son in law.

I had a great civics teacher. He taught us not only about our rights as citizens, but about our responsibilities, as well.

Mr. G would have wholeheartedly agreed with you.

[NYC Liberal]

4. Even here on DU I see posts that are just plain factually incorrect when it comes to

how the government/constitution works.

Like suggestions that Obama should have just appointed Garland to the Court regardless of whether the Senate confirmed him.

Or that the 22nd amendment made Hillary ineligible for the presidency because she was married to a former president.

Or that the Republican Party can be "banned".

Or that we ban bumper stickers that we don't like.

BTW that's a small minority of DUers. Just agreeing that civics classes would benefit everyone.

[Ocelot II]

6. I've been frustrated with the uninformed and occasionally authoritarian comments

that have popped up here recently; makes me wonder whether people younger than about 60 have been ever required to take any basic civics or government classes. Maybe a link to the Constitution should be posted prominently, maybe pinned at the top of GD, along with a request to please read the damn thing before spouting off about what "we" should be doing about whatever it is we don't like today.

[NYC Liberal]

7. It's frustrating because it's often used to bash Democrats.

Obama and Biden get criticized for not doing things they have no power to do.

People should start by just reading the constitution. It's not long at all -- I'm pretty sure it's one of, if not the, shortest in the world -- and almost all of it is in pretty plain English.

[KentuckyWoman]

9. I know college graduates who

have no idea what the 3 branches of government are, let alone how they work together. I'm not the sharpest bulb on the porch but even I know if you have a populace who doesn't understand how things work it is a lot easier to manipulate them with lies.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Indeed! nt

[Diamond_Dog]

8. Rethugs will never go for that

Heck, they are choking off the teaching of all American history that doesn’t put white people in a favored light. The more indoctrinated the kids are with right wing bullshit the better. And the more ignorant they can keep them from understanding how government works the better. It’s sickening.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. I am old enough to have had civics in High School

We need to reintroduce civics in high school