Whew! It’s finally over. We’ve survived yet another election cycle with all the now-all-too-familiar and ubiquitous yard signs, robo calls, radio and TV ads, pollaganda, and even the post-election gloating, bloating, and spinning. But this post is not about the election, at least not this election per se. Rather, it’s about other elections and how this one compares historically. Perhaps the biggest news from the election was the Republicans’ loss of control of the U.S. House

At the heart of the study is the U.S. citizenship test of basic facts about our nation’s history. Among the findings of the study are these: Only 1 in 3 Americans can pass the citizenship test, which requires only a score of 60 percent. Most of those in the study didn’t score even that low grade. 72 percent couldn’t correctly identify the original 13 colonies. Less than one-quarter knew why the colonists had fought the British in the first place. Double-digit percent thought

All of us who are old enough to remember the event, remember where we were and what we were doing when we first heard the news of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. (The scary part, to me, is that an entire generation does not remember!) I was editing a book manuscript for a client when my sister called and tersely said, “Turn on your TV. Just turn on your TV.” Three days after the attacks, while Americans were still trying to come to grips with what had happened to

Here are some of his one-liners that are among my personal favorites. They are as true today as they were when he quipped them. “The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.” “There is nothing so stupid as the educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in.” “A fool and his money are soon elected.” “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

Yesterday was the birthday of a famous politician whom many modern politicians have, knowingly or unconsciously, imitated in their own careers. Yesterday marked the birth of Niccolo. By the time he was 29, Niccolo was the defense minister. He so distinguished himself in government service that he soon was given diplomatic responsibilities, which put him in company with many powerful heads of state, including powerful religious leaders. (In those days, religious leaders wielde

There are a lot of “what ifs” in history. I happened to think of one the other day while reading a little booklet published by the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation (http://www.calvin-coolidge.org). Written by historian Jerry L. Wallace and titled Calvin Coolidge: Our First Radio President, it discussed the role that radio played in helping Coolidge get his message of common-sense economy in government around Congress and the liberal newspapers and directly to the American

Two influential people were born this week in history. (Actually, a lot of influential people were born this week in history, but I’d like to focus your attention on these two men for the moment.) Machiavellian principles of governing view immorality, dishonesty, deceit, and even murder, if they will achieve the ruler’s desired ends, as legitimate. That is, the end justifies the means. These characteristics, which many people would call vices if they were practiced by the pri

South Carolinians can now have some peace and quiet for a few months. With the Republican presidential primary now history, they will feel more free to answer their phones without being bombarded with political garbage from not only candidates’ direct campaigns but also unassociated organizations acting on their own. (I at first wrote pabulum but then changed it to garbage. Pabulum contains something of nutritional value, and there was nothing of value in the robocalls that i