Civics in the time of MAGA: Junior high kids get right what we adults have gotten wrong | Opinion
So, I'm sitting here on a Thursday afternoon, watching a bunch of junior-high-school kids answering questions about American government and constitutional rights.
And the sad irony is they know more about it than at least 90% of the politicians and elected officials I cover on a daily basis.
It's called the National Civics Bee. It's like a spelling bee, but with civics.
And Thursday was the state finals, held at the downtown Wichita headquarters of the Kansas Leadership Center.
What made this a lot more fun than the usual "bee" format was it was set up to allow for audience participation. Attendees (in a separate group) could play along with the competitors and test their own knowledge.
I talked with Chris Green of the Leadership Center and we both agreed it would be fun to invite some of our elected officials next year to see see how they stack up against the sixth-, seventh- and eighth graders in the contest. I wonder how many would accept the challenge.
The questions ranged from fairly easy, like . . .
Q: A new education reform bill was introduced in Congress and successfully passed through both the House of Representatives and the Senate. What is the next step before the bill can become law?
A: The president must sign the bill into law or take no action for 10 days, after which it will automatically become law.
. . . to the detailed and difficult, for example. . .
Q: In Federalist number 39, how does Madison distinguish between a federal and national government, and what does this distinction suggest about the nature of the Constitution as a product of the convention?
A: Madison claims that the Constitution is both federal and national, with the House of Representatives representing the national and the Senate representing the federal, suggesting that the constitution will balance power between the state and national.
(I got that one wrong. I picked the answer with the House representing the federal and Senate national).
In addition to the multiple choice, the five finalists had to read from and answer judges' questions on an essay they wrote on a current issue, ranging from saving rural hospitals to reforming state policy on driver's license revocation.
When all was said and done, Tanya Ramesh of Wichita won the competition, a $1,000 giant check, and a ticket to Washington for the national finals. Madeline Stewart of Overland Park took second and $500, while Zane Hoff of Salina got third and $250.
Civics in the Trump era
I thought the Civics Bee was one of the coolest events I've been to in a while, so I hesitate to even bring this up, but some of the questions probably need updating in this era of MAGA.
For instance:
Q: How did Afroyim versus Rusk in 1967 affect the government's power regarding citizenship revocation?
A: It limited the government's ability to to revoke citizenship.
Afroyim v. Rusk was a landmark case that ruled: "Congress has no power under the Constitution to divest a person of his United States citizenship absent his voluntary renunciation thereof. "
The court's revised that stance since, to allow citizenship to be revoked (called denaturalization) if it was granted on false pretenses that would have prevented it in the first place, for example, terrorists or Nazi war criminals living under false identities.
Now, denaturalization has become a key part of President Donald Trump's ongoing efforts to deport as many non-white immigrants as possible, whom he accuses (echoing a former world leader named Adolf) of "poisoning the blood of our country."
During his first term, Trump created "Operation Second Look," a program to comb immigrant citizens' paperwork for misstatements or errors that would allow them to be denaturalized.
This term, his top immigration advisor, Stephen Miller, has vowed to "turbocharge" Operation Second Look, which could also lead to denaturalization and deportation of American-born children of immigrants, under Trump's executive order that purports to end birthright citizenship.
Another Civics Bee question that caught my attention was this one:
Q: Which statement best reflects the application of federalism in the Clean Air Act, considering the following quotation, "the Clean Air Act represents a partnership between federal and state governments to improve air quality and to protect public health."
A: The federal government sets national standards, while states can implement stricter regulations based on local needs.
That's the way it's supposed to work. But it brought to mind a recent press release I got from Kansas 1st District Rep. Tracey Mann, taking a victory lap over Congress rolling back California anti-pollution regulations.
At the time, I remember thinking, "What business is this of Tracey Mann's?" given that he represents a district that sprawls from Colorado to one county away from Missouri, where there are about four times as many cows as people and the largest city, Lawrence, would be a minor suburb of Los Angeles.
What he knows of the pollution challenges facing California I'm guessing would fit on a microscope slide, but he couldn't care less as long as he can own some libs and send out a press release titled: " Rep. Mann Reverses Biden Green New Deal Policies."
When I was growing up, we didn't have civics bees. We barely had any civics education.
Truth be told, most of what we ever knew about the workings of government came from "Schoolhouse Rock," three-minute educational cartoons sandwiched between Jonny Quest and Scooby-Doo on Saturday mornings. Cue the music: "I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill."
I can't help thinking if we'd had civics bees back then, we wouldn't be in this mess we're in today.
So it lifts my heart to see these earnest young kids competing over who knows the most about the people and ideals that built America.
It gives me great hope that their future will be better than the present that my generation has handed them.
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