Lack of civics education for our citizens gave us Donald Trump

By Donald A. Collins | 10 August 2026
Church and State

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In their masterful 2023 book entitled “The Civic bargain—How Democracy Survives” authors Brook Manville and Joshua Ober give us a comprehensive history of evolving democracy, such as in Athens, Rome, England, and now the US, as they argue what people should constantly demand that their leaders give them the freedoms that democracy can provide.

The authors note that a poll of US citizens 47% of them could not name the three branches of our federal government!!

As Rebecca Winthrop and Ariana Sharghi write in their Brookings report of June 4 ,2020 entitled “The need for civic education in 21st-century schools”

“Americans’ participation in civic life is essential to sustaining our democratic form of government. Without it, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people will not last. Of increasing concern to many is the declining levels of civic engagement across the country, a trend that started several decades ago. Today, we see evidence of this in the limited civic knowledge of the American public, 1 in 4 of whom, according to a 2016 survey led by Annenberg Public Policy Center, are unable to name the three branches of government. It is not only knowledge about how the government works that is lacking—confidence in our leadership is also extremely low. According to the Pew Research Center, which tracks public trust in government, as of March 2019, only an unnerving 17 percent trust the government in Washington to do the right thing. We also see this lack of engagement in civic behaviors, with Americans’ reduced participation in community organizations and lackluster participation in elections, especially among young voters.1

Many reasons undoubtedly contribute to this decline in civic engagement: from political dysfunction to an actively polarized media to the growing mobility of Americans and even the technological transformation of leisure, as posited by Robert D. Putnam. Of particular concern is the rise of what Matthew N. Atwell, John Bridgeland, and Peter Levine call “civic deserts,” namely places where there are few to no opportunities for people to “meet, discuss issues, or address problems.” They estimate that 60 percent of all rural youth live in civic deserts along with 30 percent of urban and suburban Americans. Given the decline of participation in religious organizations and unions, which a large proportion of Americans consistently engaged in over the course of the 20th century, it is clear that new forms of civic networks are needed in communities.”

You can read the full text of this informative article here.

The history of civics education in America contained in this article reminds us that failure to understand history and act to confront its hard lessons gave us Trump!

What has happened since the arrival of Donald Trump has been a confirmation of what can happen when we failed to educate citizens about what democracy demands, which requires their civic involvement and their constant demands for keeping in control of their governance.

For example, had our Congress and senior members of the Biden administration fully understood on a timely basis the treasonous, outrageous assault on our Capitol on January 6th 2021, instigated by Donald Trump as outgoing President, should have put Trump in jail for treason for a long time or at the very least should have made sure that he never served in public office again. Did our senior leaders understand civics and its implications, or did they simply fail to act through lack of guts?

Therefore, not understanding how a democracy should work, people were confused and not sufficiently knowledgeable about how dictators take over democracy.

However, now that Trump has made huge progress in turning the US into an authoritarian government, we can only hope that the midterm election scheduled for November 3, 2026 will produce enough democrats and independent voters to help Democrats take over the US House of Representatives and possibly the United States Senate.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Los Angeles, CA, has spent over 60 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of 17 books: “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”, “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”, “Common Sense: When will Trump be Impeached, Indicted, and Exited?”, “Trump–unrestrained dangerous liar!”, “Our Ethnic Mix May Save Us!” and “Trump will be gone before November 3, 2026!”.

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