Anecdotal interview excerpts showing public confusion about government 'czars' and border security

142 Teaching Minds Young woman: Good judgment. Interviewer: Any specifics? Young woman: I think she would control the out-of-control spending. Young woman: I think she would acknowledge the system of government in the United States rather than focus on the administration of czars. Interviewer: Yeah, and what is your problem with czars? Young woman: I’m an American and we don’t have czars in America. Here again, we have a juxtaposition of beliefs based on no actual evi- dence or reality. I don’t know what this woman has heard about czars, but whatever it is, it misses the point. Could we teach this woman to be on point—to say meaningful things based on actual evidence? Not now, I fear, but it is my contention that we could have done so at some point in her life. School has failed her and she seems, to anyone listen- ing, to be stupid. But she is not really stupid; she is just talking stu- pidly because she hasn’t been challenged to behave in any other way. Here is another: Middle-aged woman: Governor of Alaska is the only one that has top security. Interviewer: What does that mean? Middle-aged woman: It means that if anything happens to our borders on that side, she’s the first one in line for attack for there. This person not only makes no sense, but she can’t speak in an under- standable way. Is that genetic? I doubt it. Intelligence, as it is popularly defined, includes the ability to produce coherent speech, which cer- tainly can be enhanced through teaching, but apparently not by our schools as they currently exist. Here is one last interview from that event: Interviewer: What do you think of foreign policy—what would you like to see her do with foreign policy? Man with cap: I don’t know, I really don’t have an answer—I don’t know her well enough. I don’t know what she knows or doesn’t know. I don’t know some stuff of what people ask me. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023888