The Freedom Forum has an article about the recent State of the First Amendment survey. Apparently, a very large percentage of people out there think that the First Amendment is too broad and is getting in the way of the government's "War on Terror". I think this ties into the previous post nicely, especially when you consider the response rates on some of the questions:
- "For the first time in the annual State of the First Amendment survey, almost half (49%) of those surveyed said the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees..."
- "The percentages of those responding who were able to identify individual freedoms:
- 58% — freedom of speech
- 18% — freedom of religion
- 14% — freedom of the press
- 10% — freedom of assembly/association
- 2% — freedom of petition"
Now, unless I read that wrong, only 58% of people knew the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, but 49% of those polled thought the First Amendment goes too far. It doesn't take a professional statistician to guess that a pretty damn large chunk of the people who are calling for the rewrite of the First Amendment don't even know what the one we have now says. And the fact that only 18% of people know about the freedom of religion doesn't make me sleep any easier.
It's this type of complete and utter stupidity that makes me wonder if and how American society is going to survive.
