THREAD. In the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection 12 days ago, I’ve heard friends wonder how people could fail to understand how our processes of government work and so be taken in by the lies and disinformation of the trumpzis. I can only think that in part, it’s because we

do so poorly these days at teaching kids how the government works. I was fortunate; growing up, I attended public schools in Texas and was in some good school districts. We learned all about the birth of our republic and how the Constitution defines and limits government power.

I remember my US government teacher when I was a senior in San Angelo; she made us read every word of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, and we discussed them in depth. As I entered college, I took it for granted that everyone understood our constitutional

government. But over time, I learned this wasn’t the case. Fast forward some thirty years to the most blatant case of ignorance of government that I encountered. I was in the final years of my military service. As an officer in the Army Reserve, I was serving in the role of

State Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer to the Arkansas National Guard. My team included an Air Force Reserve colonel, a Navy Reserve captain, and an Army Reserve master sergeant, and our job was to advise the Arkansas National Guard and Arkansas Department of Emergency

Management on the use of federal military assets in disaster response. Our main point of contact was a colonel in the Arkansas National Guard. This officer (whose name I won’t mention) had over 25 years of service, a college degree, and was a graduate of Command and General Staff

College. I will never forget one day over lunch, shortly after the Affordable Care Act had passed. My colleague was upset and was spouting off about how he couldn’t stand “all those laws that Obama is passing”. I told him he should write to his congressman. He asked what good

that would do, and I reminded him that it was Congress that had passed the Act. He refused to believe me, citing the fact that the Act was known as Obamacare. I explained to him that is was only a nickname given the bill because it passed on Obama’s watch and with his support. My

fellow colonel still refused to believe me. He maintained that Obama had passed the Act by decree and that he was ruling as a dictator. I finally gave up, but not before I blew up at him. I said, “Mark, you’re a g- - d - - - colonel in the US Army and you don’t know how the

government works?” He blew up right back and insisted that I didn’t understand how the government works. Folks, the moral of this story is that we live in a world in which we now educate kids do poorly about constitutional government and the rule of law that we may even find

relatively senior officers in the military who are woefully ignorant. Let’s hope and pray that our new secretary of education and a FLOTUS who is a professional educator can help turn that around.