Restoring the Constitution Starts in the Home, Not Washington

Dr. Frank Luntz is a “language architect and public opinion guru” who has written, supervised, and conducted more than 1,500 surveys, focus groups and dial sessions in more than two dozen countries and four continents over the past decade.

In 1998, his firm, Luntz Research, surveyed American teenagers aged thirteen through seventeen on their knowledge of U.S. history. What they found would make the Founders roll over in their graves:

• Only 23 percent of American teenagers know that there are one hundred Senators.
• Only 40 percent know that the first three words of the Constitution are “We the People.”
• Twenty-four percent cannot name even one of the three branches of government. Only 42 percent of teens can name all three.
• Fewer than 10 percent know that the Supreme Court case that found separate but equal treatment of blacks and whites in public schools unconstitutional was Brown v. Board of Education
• Only 25 percent know even one provision of the Fifth Amendment
• Only 26 percent know that the Constitution was written in Philadelphia.

“As bad as kids are with simple historic facts,” writes Luntz, “their parents aren’t much better. On election night in 2004, many adult voters found themselves woefully uninformed. Ten percent of voters — VOTERS — didn’t know that the vice president for the past four years was Dick Cheney. Twelve percent didn’t know that John Kerry’s running mate was John Edwards.

“As for what they did know — only 18 percent could name the majority leader of the U.S. Senate (Bill Frist)…Remember, this was not a poll of teenagers or American adults as a whole — these were voters on election night.”

What’s the Point?

There are many points to be made within such a dismal survey, but there’s one in particular that jumps out: How can we hold our politicians to standards that we don’t come remotely close to keeping ourselves?

How can we expect Washington to stick to the Constitution when we don’t even know what it says and means ourselves?

The most critical battleground in the fight to restore the Constitution and the Republic is not Washington. It’s not in the halls of government.

The battleground of freedom is in our homes.

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Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.