09-21-26 Part One - Jessica Tarlov Said What?

Red Eye Radio

The episode begins with a deep dive into an Annenberg Public Policy Center poll revealing significant gaps in American civic knowledge regarding the branches of government

Key takeaways

• Only 65% of U.S. adults can correctly name all three branches of government according to the Annenberg poll.
• Knowledge of First Amendment protections is notably low, with only 31% aware of the right to assembly and 43% aware of freedom of religion.

Main topics

• Annenberg Civic Knowledge Poll
• First Amendment Protections

Notable quotes

Ignorance is costly. You can't protect and cherish rights that you don't know you have.

Conclusion

The episode provides a critical look at the intersection of civic lite

Transcript preview

Speaker 6 (0:06) Now, it's Red Eye Radio. Gary McNamara and Eric Hurley talk about everything from politics to social issues and news of the day. Whether you're up late or you're just starting your day, welcome to the show. From the Relief Factor Studios, this is Red Eye Radio. Speaker 8 (0:26) All across America, we are Red Eye Radio. He is Eric Hurley and I'm Gary McNamara. All right, it's out again. What's out? The Annenberg School for Communication in Pennsylvania, their poll on what Americans know. All right. All right. You ready? Here we go. It's going to be a short list. Three branches of government. Yeah. 65 % correctly named all three. Speaker 7 (0:59) Wow. Now, Speaker 8 (1:00) that stayed relatively steady for the last couple of years. Remember, about 10 years ago, it was like 56%, 57%. And then at one point, one poll in the last 15 years, it showed that the majority of Americans could not tell you what the three branches of government are. Right now, it's 35 % who could not name the three branches of government. Speaker 8 (1:24) All right. So which, of course, is the executive, the legislative and the red eye branch of government. Speaker 7 (1:33) Yes. Speaker 8 (1:35) Eric Speaker 7 (1:35) and Gary would say Ten Commandments, but we have more. Speaker 8 (1:41) Now, when it comes to think about this, the First Amendment, the the only part of the First Amendment that the majority of Americans were able to identify. Speaker 8 (1:56) was free speech. 73%, significantly fewer than the 79 % that named it in 2025. Speaker 7 (2:09) So that means 27 % couldn't identify anything? Speaker 7 (2:17) Did you say 73 %? Speaker 8 (2:20) No, 73 % were able to say that in the First Amendment, you know, what was in the First Amendment. Speaker 7 (2:28) Okay. Speaker 8 (2:28) And they identified free speech. So 27 Speaker 7 (2:33) couldn't identify anything else in the First Amendment? Speaker 8 (2:37) No. They asked. No. I have it right here. Let me go through it. All Speaker 7 (2:43) right. Speaker 8 (2:43) All right. So freedom of speech, 73%. Freedom of religion, only 43 % knew that freedom of religion was in the First Amendment. Not that freedom of religion doesn't exist. Where is it in the Constitution? Right Speaker 7 (2:58) of Speaker 8 (2:59) assembly, only 31 % knew that the right of assembly was part of the First Amendment. Speaker 7 (3:10) Or as Democrats, rewrote that First Amendment, except during COVID. Speaker 8 (3:14) Yes. Freedom of the press, only 29 % knew that freedom of the press was Speaker 7 (3:22) part of the First Amendment. That's surprising. Because you would think with the liberals the way the liberal activist media is that the rank-and-file liberal would know that because of, you know, anytime somebody, I mean, they try to use that with Colbert. Speaker 8 (3:40) The freedom of the press! Speaker 7 (3:42) He's a comedian. Calm down. Speaker 8 (3:44) The right to petition for a redress of your grievances. That that's that's basically when you you look at it, that is McCain-Feingold. Yeah, that and that's basically McCain-Feingold that and only 12 percent knew that the right to petition. By the way, McCain-Feingold was an attempt to kill the right to petition to get a redress of your grievances by the government. Right. Only 12 percent knew that that was part of the First Amendment. Now, the good thing is here. Speaker 8 (4:20) 25 % knew that the right to bear arms was part of the First Amendment. Speaker 8 (4:32) No, that's not the Second Amendment. Well, I mean, my God. Here's Speaker 7 (4:36) my question. Is that a handful of conservatives trying to move it up on the list? It should be part of the first. Yeah, I don't know. At least they knew you had the right. Yes. Speaker 7 (4:54) You know, I'll accept that. Speaker 8 (4:56) As long as they know that it exists somewhere. As long as they know. In the universe. If Speaker 7 (5:00) they get it, you know, if it's lost, you know, that's fine. But as long as they know that it exists, I'm okay with that. Yeah. All right. Speaker 7 (5:10) Hey, man, we should move that up. It's not number two. It's number one, along with freedom of speech. Thank you very much. Speaker 8 (5:16) Said the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Ignorance is costly. You can't protect and cherish rights that you don't know you have. The percentage of U.S. adults who can answer an open-ended question and name the five protected. Oh, I'm sorry. The quote ended there. I thought it was continuing the quote right there. Now, here we go. 83 % know that when the president vetoes legislation, the bill becomes law if two-thirds of the members of each House of Congress vote to override the veto. Speaker 8 (5:51) This is mind-boggling, though, because this is 31 % apparently don't. Of a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, 69 % know that a 5-4 Supreme Court decision is the law and needs to be followed. Almost 1 in 5, 18%, said the decision is sent back to Congress for reconsideration, and 12 % said it is sent back to the Federal Court of Appeals to be decided there. Now, it could be, you know, because a lot of Supreme Court decisions are we're sending it back to the court. But if it's a Supreme Court decision on a constitutional issue and it's final and it doesn't have to send it back to the court is my point. Right, right, right. 60 % know that the Supreme Court has the final responsibility for determining whether an action by the president is constitutional if the president and the Supreme Court disagree. Speaker 7 (6:50) Only Speaker 8 (6:51) 40 % don't know that. Speaker 7 (6:52) 17 Speaker 8 (6:53) % say the final responsibility lies with Congress. 4 % said it lies with the, says it's the president. 19%, I don't know. Asked whether the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Speaker 8 (7:09) As what the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says about the relationship between the states and the federal government, half of U.S. adults correctly say that the powers not granted to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people. One in eight, 13%, say it's the other way around. The states only have powers granted to them by the Constitution. Speaker 8 (7:35) Over a third, 37%, don't know which one is correct. So you're saying 50 % of the people do not understand federalism. I Speaker 7 (7:56) would think, if you asked me, I would have come back with it's probably more than 50%. Speaker 7 (8:08) That that's not to me, it's surprising that it's that low because nobody seems to understand. But what's weird is the left. Speaker 7 (8:21) has often, they don't know that or don't understand or whatever, that they're actually using the idea behind federalism and that's we'll do it ourselves, we'll do it in our state, we'll do the little experiment in our state, and they don't understand the basis of it. But I would think... And for some reason, I'm surprised that at that number, I would think it would be higher, that more people would not understand federalism. That's what I think. Speaker 8 (8:55) Because the concept is easy. It's the states that gave the federal government power. Right. Not the other way around. Right. But that's basic. You know, you look at that, that 50 percent there, and then the 35 percent that can't name the three branches of government. There's no more important part of the Constitution than the three branches of government, the separation of powers. Even more important than the Bill of Rights, because the Bill of Rights doesn't exist. Speaker 8 (9:26) without the three branches of government, without the separation of powers. Speaker 7 (9:30) There's a clip of Scalia saying this, and he goes on. It's a, I don't know, it's a, he's on in, I think he's said it in other settings, but he was on Capitol Hill in this one setting that's on YouTube. And he goes on, it's about a 15-minute clip, I want to say. And he goes on about it, and we talked about it in recent months, that it is the best point ever made. That what sets us apart is the separation of powers. That is what's most critical here. And the DSA, of course, is pushing for the opposite. Speaker 8 (10:06) Well, and that's what liberalism and the DSA wishes to kill. Speaker 7 (10:09) Right. Speaker 8 (10:09) They wish to kill the separation of powers. And they publicly talk about that, to get rid of the Senate. Speaker 7 (10:20) Yeah. To Speaker 8 (10:21) put the presidency and the Supreme Court under the authority of only one branch of Congress. Speaker 7 (10:28) Right. Speaker 8 (10:31) The people's Politburo. Mm Speaker 7 (10:34) -hmm. Exactly. Speaker 8 (10:35) I mean, it's, but it's really, but you survive by crumbing up with these crazy ideas because you know a significant portion or maybe a majority of who you believe is your base is completely and totally clueless as to why, whether it's federalism. Or the separation of powers, why that is so cherished and has been cherished for over 250 years. Yeah. You don't understand the concept of it. You don't understand that the whole purpose is to keep a concentration of power from one area of the government. Speaker 8 (11:24) The whole concept of it, when you think about it, because we've always talked about, you know, people automatically, Eric, understand the problem with a monopoly. Right? In business, they talk about it all the time. Sure. That the monopoly is bad. And we've always said, well, actually, the worst monopoly is a monopoly of the government. Even a government with the three branches of government, where you can have a separation of powers, still can create laws. Speaker 8 (11:55) that will always give them an advantage over any industry out there, which is why we don't want the government in business. Well, Speaker 7 (12:04) it's when Obama was in, it was the final summer of his second term, and he was asked, I forget by which magazine, he was asked, what about Obamacare? Would you consider that an accomplishment? And then he was like, yeah, but... It didn't accomplish everything. And what I think we need to look more toward is a public-private partnership. Well, a public-private partnership in health care would have, of course, the government making all the rules, all the regulation. And then that would be the, I think he saw at that time and probably still believes it, I don't know. That would be the way for them, for the government, to kill the private sector, which is what they have to do, destroy the private sector so they can take over that industry and federalize that industry. That's what they've looked to do. They've nationalized that industry, that and energy. The Green New Deal. That Speaker 8 (13:04) was the Green New Deal. Speaker 7 (13:06) Yep. Speaker 7 (13:07) And they make it sound, again, it's always for the people. It will always benefit you. But I think the greatest example of failures like that is how people just walked blindly on the left into Obamacare. The California couple, well, we voted for Obama. We supported Obamacare. We didn't know we were going to have to pay for it. Speaker 8 (13:34) Well, you know, when we talk about the whole concept of federalism, you know, we have said one of the reasons that, you know, you look at the Democrats when it comes to, and we've talked about health care before, that they had their opportunity. They've had opportunities in states, in California, in Vermont, in Colorado, Speaker 7 (13:51) to Speaker 8 (13:52) put in a statewide government health care system. Speaker 7 (13:55) Right. They Speaker 8 (13:56) didn't do it every time they didn't do it. Why didn't they do it? Because nobody wanted to pay for it. They don't want, they want the federal government to have the ultimate power to get involved in all these areas because they know that they can borrow the money from future generations that you don't have to pay for it yourself. So they've taken this entire thing of compassion and basically said, we will steal from future generations without their approval. taxation without representation, one of the reasons this country was created. And what they're saying is we found the loophole. We got taxation without representation. We can take it from future generations and put the burden on them. How immoral is that? Yet we do it every day and we don't want to talk about it. Nobody wants to talk about it. Speaker 7 (14:49) Taxation without constituents. Speaker 8 (14:53) Yeah. Taxation on the backs of future constituents. Right. Speaker 7 (14:57) Which is kind of odd because we're at a very, very low birth rate, which means it won't be the next generation because we're having fewer of that next generation. So unless we have a baby boom, 40 trillion is going to be a problem and it won't be 40 trillion. I think in the next couple of weeks, we're going to hit $50 trillion. It's moving that fast. It's moving so quickly that we are going to get to that point. And that's what they had hoped. Don't look at the debt Speaker 8 (15:32) number because you'll get dizzy Speaker 7 (15:34) as Speaker 8 (15:35) it continues to go every second. Speaker 7 (15:37) Exactly. And when you look at what they've said in recent weeks with the current administration. Speaker 7 (15:46) about all these things. Well, there will be a prosperous, you know, if we continue to expand the economy, all this thing will basically level things out with pretty much everything, inflation and all this. It sounds like something Janet Yellen would say. And think there are good things that are happening in this economy. Other things that are self-inflicted wounds. Many. Too many. coming from the side that was trusted in 2024 to get it done. Speaker 8 (16:25) And it's a problem now with the midterms coming up. It's a Speaker 7 (16:28) huge problem. Because Speaker 8 (16:29) the economy is the number one issue, and that is prices. By the way, you see DeSantis is all over that. Speaker 7 (16:35) Oh, yeah. Speaker 8 (16:36) DeSantis is all, he's running. Okay, so was it Speaker 7 (16:39) me? Speaker 7 (16:41) We'll talk about this in a bit, but was it me or were there few news organizations carrying Trump's comments about something big is about to happen with Iran? Speaker 7 (16:56) I didn't see that widespread. Maybe I missed it. Well, that's Speaker 8 (16:59) because I think the media was focused on the whole CNN, MS, whatever time it is, and Politico, and Trump doing that. That was a perfect, I'm trying to get my base together, and the fighting's going to go back and forth on that. That sort of dominated over the weekend. And Speaker 7 (17:21) that's my point. It would have been a bigger story before, but now nobody listens to them on a rant. It's not rising to the top like it should. Speaker 8 (17:29) We are Red Eye Radio. Speaker 4 (17:30) This report is brought to you by Shell Rotella. With advanced synthetic technology is designed to help keep your rig running with more mileage and less maintenance. Did you know that up to half of all major engine failures are due to poor cooling system maintenance? That's a lot of downtime and can cost drivers big. 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