FAIL: These Americans Don't Know Why We Celebrate the 4th of July.

To be fair, these sort of interviews that ask Americans questions about American history never show the people who got the answers right. That wouldn't be fun to watch. But the number of people in this video who don't know who we became independent from, the date of our independence, or even why we celebrate July 4 is appalling.



"Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Britain on July 2, 1776, when it approved a resolution and delegates from New York were given permission to make it a unanimous vote. John Adams thought July 2 would be marked as a national holiday for generations to come. 

“The most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,” Adams said about what he envisioned as a July 2nd national holiday."n --SOURCE


PS. Yay for the Italian guy. BTW, Italy is a younger unified country than is the United States. Italy achieved unification in 1871.








As we enjoy this 4th of July weekend celebrating the birth of America and its independence from Great Britain, keep in mind these words from Paul Weyrich, a religious conservative political activist who help found The Heritage Foundation, The Moral Majority, and ALEC: 


 "How many of our Christians have what I call the ‘goo goo syndrome’? ‘Good government.’ They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." 



 "And how effective have these efforts been? Consider Kansas’ last governor’s race as a case in point. Republican incumbent Sam Brownback – noted equally for both declaring a religious “Day of Restoration” holiday in his state and for tax cuts that left Kansas in financial shambles – faced Democrat Paul Davis, who was endorsed by over 100 Republican elected officials who couldn’t tolerate Brownback’s policies. 

 In that election year, 23,782 Kansans had their voting rights suspended due to a new “proof of citizenship” law. Another estimated 17,000 couldn’t vote because they didn’t have an approved state-issued ID. That’s over 40,000 registered voters in Kansas who were disenfranchised on Election Day ’14. And by how many votes did Brownback win re-election that year? 33,052."
--SOURCE