It’s hard to get away from politics these days, and everyone seems to have an opinion. But it turns out, when it actually comes to how our government works, a lot of Americans are absolutely clueless.
- A new poll from The University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center show that after two years of improvement, Americans' knowledge of basic facts about our government has declined.
- The poll finds:
- Only 47% of Americans can name all three branches of the government (executive, legislative and judiciary).
- That’s a drop from 56% last year, and the first drop since 2016.
- 25% of people actually couldn’t name any branch of the government, an increase of 20% from last year.
And while some people love to spout off about First Amendment freedoms, it turns out a lot of people don’t know what freedoms are protected by it.
- Of the five freedoms:
- 63% of people correctly named freedom of speech, down from 74% last year.
- Only 24% named freedom of religion, down from 56%.
- Only 20% named freedom of the press, down from 50%.
- Just 16% said right of assembly, down from 30%.
- Only 6% identified right to petition the government, down from 20%.
- What’s worse, 26% of people said they "can't name any" or said they “don’t know,” an increase from 17%.
Source: Annenberg’s Public Policy Center
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