U. S. of phonies

Citizens of the U.S., as well as citizens of countries around this big beautiful ball we call the world, are quick to question their government. Quick to point fingers and blame their leaders if shit is hitting the fan. Anything from high gas prices to escalating problems with Libya to unemployment to a bad economy ... the blame game is key. After being fed manufactured bullshit from some talking head on the local news channel, whatever the hot ticket item of the day is (ratings, ratings, ratings!) must be Barry O's fault!
While it's too easy (and ignorant) to blame one man for the complicated state of a magnificently large and complexly organized country, I am more interested in this: What do these complainers, and you, know about the country you live in? How it works? Its history?
Take some sample questions from the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services test for all immigrants applying for citizenship ... can you answer these? For people from other countries, take a minute and Google your country's name and sample citizenship test questions and see if you can pass the test.
For the U.S., there are some questions every Joe Six-pack can answer correctly, i.e. What are the colors of our flag? How many states are there in the union? Who is the current president of the U.S.?
However, what about these ...
How many changes and amendments are there to the Constitution?
What are the three branches of our government and what does each branch do?
What are the 13 original states?
Who has the power to declare war?
What is the U.S. Capitol?
How many times can a senator be re-elected?
Who are your senators?
What countries were our enemies during World War II?
Out of the 100 possible questions you are asked 10 and must get at least 6 correct. Not so easy. Reminds me of my eighth grade Social Studies class where we learned about the U.S. government in order to pass a citizenship test at the end of the year. Too bad all I remember about the class is the black spandex pants my extremely overweight teacher wore as she sashayed around the room, babbling about the Supreme Court and other snooze-worthy nonsense while passing gas. Great student I was!
So, next time you are about to complain about some aspect of the government or some government leader, take a minute and think about your knowledge of "the system" you are so quick to blame.
By the way, I Googled "United Kingdom citizenship test" and learned with this test you must score at least a 75 percent out of 24 questions. Yikes!