Mandatory Civics Test for Legislators

For years, I have been advocating a mandatory civics test before issuing a voter registration card. To me, if you can’t name the three branches of the federal government, the first and current presidents of the United States, and a handful of other pertinent questions about American history and our founding principles, you have no business casting a ballot to elect our nation’s leaders.

Now, it seems as if that same standard should apply to serving in the United States Congress.

Let me give you two recent – and very pathetic – examples of federal officeholders who displayed a shameful ignorance of both American history and our founding documents.

Exhibit A is Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who in 2016 came within a few hundred thousand votes of becoming vice president of the United States. Scary thought, isn’t it?

During a recent Senate hearing, Sen. Kaine went on a rant about the origin of our rights as Americans. Here is an excerpt from his shockingly ignorant remarks…

“The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator – that’s what the Iranian government believes. It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Sharia law and targets Sunnis, Baha’i’s, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities. And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”

Yes, you heard that right. Sen. Kaine publicly stated that believing that rights are granted by our Creator – and not our government – is the equivalent of Islamic jihad. And yet, 249 years ago, another far-more-intellectual Virginian by the name of Thomas Jefferson penned these words…

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Newsflash! The Declaration of Independence, our country’s founding document, makes no mention of government-granted rights, only unalienable ones endowed by our Creator.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Tim!

To think that – had Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in 2016 – this historically-illiterate man would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency is absolutely mindboggling.

Thankfully, sitting on the same Senate committee as Tim Kaine was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a well-known constitutional scholar, who proceeded to set him straight.

“I have to say, it is stunning to me that the principle that God has given us natural rights is now deemed by Democrats [to be] some radical and dangerous notion,” Sen. Cruz fired back.

Cruz also took to social media to condemn and counter Kaine’s remarks…

“The casual condemnation of America’s founding principle is exactly what is wrong with today’s Democrat Party,” Sen. Cruz posted on X. “Government protects our God-given rights; it does not create or destroy them.”

Sadly, Tim Kaine wasn’t the only Democratic officeholder to demonstrate a startling ignorance of basic U.S. Civics last week. Meet Yassamin Ansari, the youngest female in Congress and the first Iranian-American elected in Arizona.

After proudly proclaiming that illegal aliens were among her constituents – only to learn that constituents are actually “voting members of a community or organization having the power to appoint or elect” – Rep. Ansari arbitrarily redefined the term to mean “somebody who is part of a community”.

Nice try, Yassamin, but Google says you’re wrong… and so does Merriam-Webster’s, Dictionary.com, Cambridge.org, and Collinsdictionary.com. As for Vocabularly.com, they add the word “citizen” to their definition… and not too many illegal aliens fit that bill.

Undaunted, Ms. Ansari doubled-down on her mistake, saying that she wanted to make sure that “the United States government with our taxpayers’ dollars is treating these people [illegal aliens] with dignity and respect.”

Rep. Ansari then added that “I don’t give a sh*t if none of these people can vote for me or not.”

Real classy, congresswoman. Real classy.

How about if you and Tim Kaine report to Civics and English class? That way you’ll learn about America’s founding principles as well as how to speak in public without using profanity.