I'm a student of American history.

It's not a dry and boring subject when taught correctly, as evidenced by some amazing TV programming that brings history to life. Ken Burns' programs included.

Lots of young people today are clueless about American history and ignorant about the Constitution.

Based on what I've seen, we are a nation filled with, frankly, flunkies. It does not give me much hope for the future of government. If it wasn't so scary the views of everyday American dummies would be hilarious.

Mark Dice posts videos weekly where he "interacts with the insane public to monitor the zombie Apocalypse with basic questions about current events and history, and prank petitions nobody in their right mind would even consider signing."

Dice went out on the beach of Oceanside and asked for opinions about a made-up "White privilege tax" proposed by Hillary Clinton. Of course, Mrs. Clinton hasn't proposed any such tax to help the minority communities but the interviewees were not shocked by it and they approved of it! "Yeah I think she should help redistribute into the minority communities with the white privilege tax," said one bronzed ditzy bikini-clad woman. A young man offers, "Why not? We're all in this together and need to help each other out." Another young man echoes that with, "Why not?" before he says "Legalize marijuana, baby."

In another segment, Dice asked people to sign a petition to ban speaking about politics and religion in public. The skulls of mush didn't bat an eye and signed the petition.

Dice even got people to sign a petition to call for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on North Korea.

He got people to sign a ban to sell the Bible from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, playing into it with phrases that "stop with the hate speech and homophobia."

Dice proves beyond a shadow of how very ignorant society has become. The average American buys into the chatter they hear from those who they see on TV, like the ladies on "The View" or those who spin the news, which are invariable those on the left. For years we've seen the Tonight Show send out people on hidden camera with a photo of the vice president to ask people on the street if they know who he is and few people could identify him.

Following the Oregon shooting, Facebook was abuzz with all sorts of anti-gun comments. My son, now a liberal but not raised by any, went on his tirade that guns should be banned. He boasted of Japan's murder rate but I had to point out that Japan has thousands of knife murders annually. So much for doing away with crime by doing away with guns. So much for the Second Amendment that guarantees Congress shall not infringe upon the right to own guns.

That's not the only amendment of which people are ignorant. When KSAT TV in Texas posted a video of illegal aliens being removed from a steamy trailer that brought them across the border, a one Mariana Monroy posted this: "Are you kidding me? Did you guys ask these immigrants if you could show these images? And plaster them all over your website? Show me you did. This is so sad and I'm appalled that KSAT would show someone's face like these poor people's faces just to get some likes! Disgusting, I liked you ksat! IF you had permission from alllllll of these immigrants, I retract my statement, but I'm sure you didn't and are violating human rights."

Violating human rights, huh? I'll bet she missed the lesson on the First Amendment and how those illegal aliens don't need to give permission to be plastered on the news. It's called freedom on the press.

My son was rejoicing recently about Gov. Brown's signing of a law that automatically registers those with drivers licenses to vote. I think it's a horrible idea. "By God, you're going to be a registered voter whether you like it or not," I can hear Brown saying.

As I've said before, people probably shouldn't be voting if they have no clue what the issues are. If you don't have the initiative to sign up to register on your own, you're probably going to be a low information voter who has no understanding of what the issues are.

Emily Rusch, the executive director of the advocacy group California Public Interest Research Group, said the law will improve voter turnout, likely to get more millennials to vote. (We all know how they tend to vote, Ms. Rusch, and it isn't for Republicans). She said "over half of eligible youth are just being left out entirely of the process." Left out? They weren't left out. They never checked in and you're making it easier for the "lazy" to vote!!! Then she's the audacity to say: "Californians aren't even registered to vote, so they're not even getting information about the election." Whose fault is that, the lazy Americans who won't register or the existing system that already makes it easy as pie to register? And how can anyone claim the non-voters "aren't getting information about the election" when we are the most information overloaded generation to ever live is beyond me. She's delusional, and so is Gov. Brown and Secretary of State Alex Padilla. No, I take that back. They know exactly what they are trying to do: Insure that California will never ever, ever support conservative candidates. It's job security for their party.

Of course, most people probably didn't catch wind of the plot to get illegal aliens the chance to vote - even though it's very unconstitutional - because they were more paying attention to his illegal ban on the use of "Redskins" on any sports team in California. This comes after he made illegal the use of the term "illegal alien" in state labor codes. If this doesn't smack of 1984 and Big Brother I don't know what does.

The people sleep and let it happen. They are more concerned about who the Kardashians are sleeping with.

Americans are permitting bad government and bad decisions, unconstitutional actions because they don't know their Constitution and they don't care. Apathy is at an all-time high and that's a shame. It also could very well lead to the demise of the country.

The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."

At times it feels like the people are not wanting to keep it.

And John Adams wrote: "The preservation of liberty depends on the intellectual and moral character of the people. As long as knowledge and virtue are diffused generally among the body of a nation, it is impossible they should be enslaved."

Ask yourself how that holds up in the America of 2015.
How do you feel? Let Jeff know by emailing him at jeffb@cerescourier.com