Don't worry, Carrie- you're not alone

Carrie Prejean's impassioned speech at her recent press conference with Donald Trump brought up a disconcerting issue into the spotlight: Americans don't understand their Constitution. Prejean claimed to have exercised her freedom of speech, and when she did that, she was punished. Keith Olbermann had some commentary on that last night:


Though it is enjoyable to poke a little fun at Prejean for the preposterous situation she's in that continues to blow up, she is not alone in her misconceptions about what rights are guaranteed by our Constitution.

Back in 2006, the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum published a study about how well Americans know the Constitution. The results were not promising. Almost 20% believed that owning a pet was constitutionally protected, and 38% thought that the right against self-incrimination was guaranteed by the First Amendment.

A recent survey by Rasmussen Reports showed that only 75% of those asked thought that the Constitution protected a right to own a gun; 14% said that gun ownership was not protected, and 11% were not sure. Another survey by Rasmussen Reports showed that when asked about how the Constitution "in terms of how it impacts life in our country today," 63% thought it was good to excellent; 21% thought fair, and 12% thought poor.

So the lesson of today is that even when people think that the Constitution is doing ok for them, they really don't know what that means. And how can we expect people to be outraged by the injustices inherent in the system when they don't understand the system?