During today's' confirmation hearing of Senator Jeff Sessions for the office of the AG, Sen. Ben Sasse claimed that "we have a crisis in this country of civic ignorance" and blamed President Obama's executive orders for this long standing American issue.
Sen. Ben Sasse opened up his questioning discussion with Sen. Sessions and said, "We have a crisis in this country of civic ignorance. Our kids don't know basic civics and we have a crisis of public trust in this country and that many Americans presume that people in the city are overwhelmingly motivated by partisan perspectives rather than the public good."
Highlighting the idea of civic ignorance is not a bad idea as the teaching of civics to students has dropped prodigiously in America.
Then Sen. Sasse made an outrageous claim and said, "Tragically, our current president, multiple times over the last three or four years has exacerbated this political polarization by saying he didn't have legal authority to do things and then subsequently doing exactly those things."
Creepily, Sasse weaved the none function education has placed on teaching civics and government to our kids since George Bush took office in 2000 and placed it squarely on President Obama's shoulders over his use of executive orders.
In an interview retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said, “Today, at least half of the states don’t even require high school students to take civics; only three states require it in middle school.”
He continued, "This is a crisis when kids don't understand the distinction between the legislative and the executive branches, and when American voters don't think that people who serve in these offices take their oaths seriously."
Sen. Sasse approved of School House Rock jingles and said, "Could you at least start by telling us what you think the place for executive orders and executive actions are?"
Apparently Republican politicians believe Obama is the first and only president to use the executive order.
Now to some facts on presidential executive orders:
Richard Nixon used a total of 346
Ronald Reagan used a total of 381
George Bush used a total of 166 in one term.
William J. Clinton used a total of 364
George W. Bush used a total of 291
Barack Obama used a total of 266
President Obama used the least executive orders of any of our modern day presidents. The fact that Ronald Reagan used them the most frequently has never bothered Republicans is quite telling.
Republicans destroyed any chance at comprehensive immigration reform which forced President Obama to use his pen on DACA and that infuriated conservatives across the country.
And in Sen. Sasse's mind, that one action has corrupted the minds of every living student in America.
Sen. Sessions response was loopy as well, framing his answer on the idea that Obama said he couldn't do something and then did it. I'm sure the youth of America was riveted throughout the entire DACA debate.
However, it was Sen. Sasse who made an ignorant assumption that has no basis in reality and framed the question around civics and executive orders so he was the more egregious one in this Q&A.