'Woefully ignorant' GOP presidential candidates are putting U.S. in 'peril': conservative

Republican candidates for office are "woefully ignorant" and are putting America at risk with their unabashed unwillingness to understand the difference between fact and fiction, wrote conservative columnist David French for The New York Times on Friday.

Ignorance has been commonplace in American politics for decades, French noted — but lately, the way the political system has handled it has changed in an alarming way.

In some regards, French wrote, the ignorance of politicians reflects that of the populace. For instance, he wrote, "As far back as 1943, 77 percent of Americans knew essentially nothing about the Bill of Rights, and in 1952 only 19 percent could name the three branches of government" — and still only 38 percent could do so in 2011, while more recent surveys have found most Americans could not pass the U.S. Citizenship Test and don't even know who America fought in World War II.

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The difference now, said French, is that whereas politicians were once held to a higher standard, now they are defiant and proud of what they don't understand.

For instance, in the 1970s, President Gerald Ford caused national uproar when he claimed in a debate that, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration” — in fact, the Soviets controlled most of Eastern Europe at the time, and Ford backtracked quickly as the press went haywire.

By contrast, former President Donald Trump rarely ever backs down from his statements, no matter how challenged they are by fact-checkers, and candidates trying to imitate him, like businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, rarely do either.

Ramaswamy, wrote French, "is exceptionally articulate but also woefully ignorant, or feigning ignorance, about public affairs. Despite his confident delivery, a great deal of what he says makes no sense whatsoever." He also routinely denies he said things he's on video saying and changes his story, like on his 9/11 conspiracy theories; has claimed Second Amendment rights won the Civil War; and pushes unworkable policies like abolishing early voting without explaining how he would do this.

A functional democracy, concluded French, "needs an informed public and a basically honest political class."

"It can muddle through without one or the other, but when it loses both, the democratic experiment is in peril," he wrote.

"When leaders ruthlessly exploit that ignorance and animosity, the Republic can fracture. How long can we endure the consequences of millions of Americans believing the most fantastical lies?"