As we talked about - at length - this week, Suzanne hatched a foolproof plan for Anthony to pretend to be Consuela so he could overcome her citizenship hurdles. Consuela - and Anthony - and Suzanne’s - struggle in this episode is so real. For this segment, we’ll first talk process - what is citizenship and how do you get it - I’ll throw a couple numbers at Salina, and then, what the heck - let’s take a test!
Here are some of the resources we used for this episode:
National survey finds…gaps…in Americans’ knowledge of…America
A practice test for the civics portion of the U.S. naturalization process - this is what we took on the show
Statistics on naturalization, including completion rates
Come on y’all, let’s get into it!
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Transcript
Nikki: Hey, Salina.
Salina: Hey, Nikki.
Salina: How are you?
Salina: I don't know.
Nikki: I feel like I needed to say something.
Nikki: I'm good.
Nikki: Welcome to the week's.
Nikki: Extra sugar.
Nikki: There was no way we were going to be able to have an extra sugar for this episode and not talk about immigration and US.
Nikki: Citizenship.
Nikki: Bad too.
Nikki: Citizenship.
Nikki: As we talked about at length this week, with the threat of deportation looming, suzanne hatched a foolproof plan for Anthony to pretend to be consuela so he could do everything needed for her to become a citizen consuela.
Nikki: And Anthony and even Suzanne's struggle in this episode is really real.
Nikki: For this segment, we're going to talk about process.
Nikki: So what is citizenship?
Nikki: How do you get it?
Nikki: Throw a couple numbers at you, Salina, because that's fun time.
Salina: I like numbers as long as I'm not tested on numbers.
Nikki: Whale.
Nikki: Salina, how do you feel about taking a test today?
Salina: I feel like it's in the cards.
Nikki: It's in the cards.
Nikki: It's like top card.
Nikki: And we're not going to shuffle it out for another card like we did in our trivia segment.
Nikki: You're doing it.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: So we're going to do the civics test portion of the citizenship interview.
Nikki: We'll talk about it in a second.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: So we're going to call this segment ten Simple Steps to the American Dream.
Nikki: This is sort of an aside.
Nikki: I went to the US.
Nikki: Immigration web page and was looking at how to become a citizen.
Nikki: How to become a citizen.
Salina: How is there usability?
Nikki: It says in order to become a US.
Nikki: Citizen, it's only ten simple step or ten short steps away.
Nikki: And you always say that.
Nikki: I don't know if you even know that you say it, but you'll be like, and in 50 simple steps, I can show you how to make toast.
Salina: I hate it.
Nikki: It was the first thing I thought of and I was like, I have to frame this whole segment at around these ten simple steps.
Salina: That is so government, actually.
Salina: That's pretty good, though.
Nikki: That's actually reasonable.
Salina: I think it's 14 steps for a government action.
Nikki: It's a round number.
Nikki: It is less than 100.
Nikki: And actually, once we get into the steps because I will walk through all ten steps, I think there are a couple that could have been collapsed.
Salina: Did you become naturalized for this section?
Nikki: I did, but thank you for spoiling my ending.
Salina: Oh, my bad.
Salina: Sorry about that.
Nikki: So to get into it, I found some statistics suggesting that every year about 860,000 US.
Nikki: Green card holders apply for citizenship by naturalization.
Salina: That's not as high as I thought it would be.
Nikki: Really?
Nikki: Almost a million people a year?
Salina: Yeah, I'm not good with numbers.
Nikki: It's true.
Nikki: Like?
Nikki: What is the US?
Nikki: Population?
Salina: 330,000,000, I think 300 and 3350, something like that.
Salina: 300 something.
Nikki: All right, well, that wasn't part of my segment, but here we are.
Nikki: So for anyone who doesn't know, naturalization is the process by which a lawful permanent resident becomes a US.
Nikki: Citizen after living in the US.
Nikki: For a period of time.
Nikki: It's usually three to five years.
Nikki: I think it errs for most people on the side of five.
Salina: Yeah, I'm sure.
Nikki: I'm going to say everything in sort of like roundabouts because there are exceptions to the rules.
Nikki: So this segment is not how to get you to be a US.
Nikki: Citizen, it's just to know about it.
Salina: What are we here for, then?
Nikki: So one statistic that surprised me is that the success rate for naturalization is somewhere in the 96% zone.
Salina: Oh, okay.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: That is a little surprising, honestly.
Nikki: And only like 3% of applicants have to, quote, retake the test or redo everything.
Nikki: Small number.
Nikki: I think I was mostly surprised by that because of the infamous, quote, civics test.
Nikki: That's the thing that Suzanne takes at the end of the episode and barely passed.
Nikki: Does it sound familiar to you, this concept that most Americans couldn't pass the test to become a citizen?
Salina: Absolutely.
Salina: And it sounds familiar to me that most people who are not from America know more about America than Americans.
Nikki: That's right.
Nikki: And we're going to talk a lot more about that in a minute.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: But yeah, so that was sort of the impetus for this entire segment, was that it's generally known that most Americans could not pass the test about being an American.
Salina: That's why I'm scared it's wild.
Nikki: So the test I'm talking about, this civics test I'm talking about gauges your knowledge of US.
Nikki: History and government.
Nikki: And as we've just said, most people wouldn't pass it as Americans.
Nikki: So for anyone who doesn't know basic citizenship rights, that word is so incredibly challenging for me.
Nikki: Basic rights of being a US.
Nikki: Citizen are the right to a passport, the right to leave and return the country or countries of citizenship, the right to live in that country, and the right to work in that country.
Nikki: Some countries allow citizens to hold multiple citizenships, but others require exclusive allegiance.
Nikki: The US.
Nikki: Allows citizens to hold multiple citizenships.
Nikki: Naturalization allows immigrants to hold the same right as natural born citizens, with one exception, I believe, which is to be the President.
Nikki: In order to be the president, you have to be natural born.
Nikki: But like jury duty, to be called for jury duty, you have to be a US.
Nikki: Citizen.
Salina: Do all the crappy stuff, do with.
Nikki: That information what you will.
Salina: You still get that pleasure.
Salina: Exactly.
Nikki: So one thing I stumbled across in my research, which was kind of interesting, was that there's a lot about naturalization.
Nikki: And as I was reading these things, this really stuck out to me.
Nikki: There are two countries which deny any naturalization path for immigrants.
Nikki: Myanmar or Myanmar and Uruguay.
Nikki: Or Uruguay.
Nikki: In Uruguay, you can be a legal citizen without being a national.
Nikki: It's the only country in the world that recognizes a person's right to citizenship without being a national.
Nikki: The country considers your country of birth to be your nationality and they consider that to be unchangeable.
Nikki: However, you can have rights as a citizen under a specific process.
Nikki: I need a code.
Salina: I knew I shouldn't have given you so much liquor before we started this episode.
Nikki: So there's a lot of bureaucracy and legalese behind this, but practically I just wanted to make the point that this introduces a really practical passport issue for Uruguayan citizens who aren't nationals.
Nikki: So there's a nationality field on your passport and so Uruguayan citizens can have a passport that lists their nationality as another country.
Nikki: So it could say it's a Uruguayan passport, but it could say American as the nationality.
Nikki: And many countries don't accept passports issued by a country that declares the holder as a national of another country.
Salina: Oh well, that is tricky.
Nikki: Yay right.
Salina: Yeah, thanks for that.
Nikki: Sort of stuck.
Salina: Yeah, super helpful.
Nikki: Another thing I found that was sort of interesting was about the history of the naturalization process.
Nikki: Essentially in the early part of the 20th century, globalization led to massive increases in population shifts, so people were moving in ways they never had before.
Nikki: And then World War I left a lot of people stateless and they weren't citizens of any state as a result of the war.
Nikki: So up to that point in history, naturalization laws had been developed for like a small number of people who willingly moved from one country to another.
Nikki: So countries were massively unprepared to accommodate naturalizing large numbers of people at one time.
Nikki: So some countries actually passed mass nationalization laws to accommodate large groups of people at one time.
Salina: That's very recent and modern.
Salina: It is, yeah.
Nikki: By default the US constitution kind of automatically builds in a mass nationalization process and that's because the 14th amendment grants citizenship only to those who are born or naturalized in the US.
Nikki: And only Congress holds the power of naturalization.
Nikki: So any act of Congress that expands the rights of citizenship can be considered mass nationalization naturalization.
Nikki: So for instance, there was an act that extended citizenship to the citizens of Puerto Rico.
Nikki: So that was, I think, our most recent example of mass nationalization.
Nikki: I don't know, I just thought that was interesting.
Nikki: Also one other thing I just added in yesterday because I came across this and thought it was interesting.
Salina: Don't tell us how the sausage is made.
Nikki: Sorry guys.
Nikki: The mass naturalization of native people in occupied territories is illegal under the laws of war.
Nikki: So that's the Hague and Geneva Conventions But it has happened even as recently as the 20th century I won't go into because honestly the World War II geopolitics confuses me a little bit.
Nikki: But there was a little bit of a skirmish between Russia and Poland where Russia basically annexed Poland and so that would be an example of this very illegal thing that happened.
Salina: Little history of that, history of this.
Nikki: It's a lot.
Nikki: So I wanted to touch on all that process sort of around the world.
Nikki: But let's head back to the US.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: Since that's where Anthony and I guess by extension consuela were experiencing in this episode.
Salina: That's good because I'm starting to get sweaty about this test.
Nikki: So you got a couple more minutes to start breathing deeply.
Nikki: Okay.
Nikki: So in the US.
Nikki: Becoming a citizen is a brief ten step process, as we've discussed, for those who are eligible.
Nikki: So to be eligible, you have to be 18 years old when you apply.
Nikki: You must be able to read, write, and speak basic English.
Nikki: And you must be quote, of good moral character.
Nikki: You also need to be either one, a lawful permanent like no felonies, no jail time.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: Not being a member of so they do define it?
Nikki: I think so.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: Because I'm like, who's.
Nikki: Morals.
Nikki: Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure they define it.
Nikki: There's some things okay.
Salina: Don't be killing people.
Nikki: Got it.
Salina: That's correct.
Nikki: All right.
Nikki: So you also either need to be one, a lawful permanent resident of five years.
Nikki: So that means a green card holder married to a US citizen.
Salina: That's a long time.
Salina: A US.
Nikki: Military Service member.
Nikki: This blew my mind.
Nikki: You can be a US military service member and not be a citizen.
Nikki: That's crazy, right?
Salina: Well, militarily speaking, mercenaries and all that long history of that in the world, but yes, that is crazy.
Nikki: Or also the child of a US citizen.
Nikki: Okay, so to start on the ten.
Salina: Steps.
Nikki: Step one, double check first that you're not already a US citizen.
Nikki: You could potentially have been born one or be eligible because of your parents.
Nikki: So before you start on the process, make sure you meet the process.
Nikki: Hey, man, if you get to step ten and realize you should have started at step one, I can't help you.
Salina: I mean, I guess it's like reminding somebody to put their name on the that's correct.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: It needs to happen.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: Make sure you're eligible for naturalization.
Nikki: Prepare this is step three.
Nikki: Prepare your N 400 form for naturalization.
Salina: Like I said, it's harder there.
Salina: Yeah, slows down.
Nikki: And it's the shortest one.
Nikki: Do the form.
Nikki: It's going to take you seven and a half years.
Nikki: Number four, submit your form and pay your fees.
Nikki: Because freedom ain't what free.
Nikki: That's right.
Nikki: For what it's worth, it's like way not free.
Nikki: It's like $745 if you need what's going to come up in the next step.
Nikki: It's 600 something if you don't need the next step.
Nikki: Okay, so the next step is a biometrics appointment, which is basically fingerprinting, which everyone needs.
Nikki: Not everyone, actually.
Nikki: People over 75 years old don't need fingerprints.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: Because they didn't have fingerprints.
Nikki: I think that's right.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: I don't know.
Nikki: And those who are joining under the military umbrella okay, I'm guessing that's because.
Salina: They'Re already on the how kind.
Nikki: It's so funny.
Nikki: That was your first question you asked because I was like, well, who doesn't need fingerprints?
Nikki: I'm going to be in that category.
Nikki: What I didn't do is double check why people 75 and older, I just figured they're old.
Salina: It's fine, right?
Salina: We're not worried about we're not worried about them.
Nikki: Just not worried.
Nikki: They're going to be just they're not.
Salina: Long for this world.
Salina: Thank you, America.
Nikki: All right, step six complete your naturalization interview.
Nikki: During this interview is when you take that civics test and you also take an English test.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: That's the one I'd be worried about if I didn't speak English.
Nikki: English is hard.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: I mean, there are days where I'm.
Nikki: 100%, and I did read for what it's worth on this one that you can go to.
Nikki: There are all kinds of services that offer English lessons or that will prepare you for this civics test.
Nikki: And I saw one, actually, while we were in Key West.
Nikki: I saw a naturalization tutoring service or something.
Nikki: So thank you.
Nikki: People need help.
Nikki: I did not I didn't want to cheat.
Salina: She's not really dedicated to this segment, are you?
Nikki: I didn't want to cheat.
Nikki: Salina.
Nikki: Step seven is get a decision on your N 400 form.
Nikki: So that's that step Suzanne had right at the end.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: Some of these aren't bad.
Nikki: It's not bad.
Salina: It is.
Salina: That's a process because I've heard firsthand accounts of it before, and it's pretty rough.
Salina: These ten name steps that's correct on paper aren't as bad as I thought.
Nikki: To that point.
Nikki: The eligibility piece for that one step of determining your eligibility, that can be like seven substeps, because how long you've lived here, where you lived, what sort of visa you were on, what you did, that all can get really complicated really fast.
Nikki: This is not that segment.
Salina: Not to mention it's like I'm just imagining government employees pushing this paperwork.
Nikki: They really care a lot.
Salina: Yes, a lot.
Nikki: They really want to help you.
Nikki: It's their number one goal in life, is to make sure you get what you need.
Salina: Just the DMV for the country Social.
Nikki: Security office is worse.
Nikki: I had to take Carolina there.
Nikki: It's awful.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: Sorry.
Nikki: So if your N 400 form is accepted and you've passed your interview, that's when you get your notice to go take your oath of citizenship.
Nikki: That's step eight.
Nikki: Step nine is actually taking your oath of citizenship.
Nikki: And then step ten, they suggest you learn your rights of citizenship.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: Don't you feel like that's where you would start to determine if this is all worth it?
Salina: Right.
Salina: Got you now.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: So I mentioned at the top of the segment that the civics test portion is the mythical part.
Nikki: I feel like we mostly talk about only 30% of Americans could pass that portion of the naturalization process, and to pass the test, you have to score a 60%.
Nikki: Suzanne scored a 75%, and they said that she was, like, one point above or whatever.
Nikki: It's actually 60%.
Nikki: And let that sink in for a second.
Nikki: Just one third of Americans could get a 60% on this test.
Salina: We're just not doing our best.
Salina: And the thing is that when I'm thinking about people who I do think know more about America, it's not like they don't know things about where they're from, too, right?
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: Because they spent their entire life learning whatever the version of Georgia this history is.
Salina: This is rhetorical.
Salina: Okay?
Salina: I don't expect this to be in.
Nikki: Your notes, but what happened?
Salina: What happens?
Salina: How is this possible that we know so little?
Salina: You take history every year in school.
Nikki: I have theories.
Nikki: I think some of it's retention.
Nikki: I think some of it is the way we teach is so is didactic the right word, like, it's memorization, versus for someone like me for me to retain something, it almost has to be logical.
Nikki: It has to be a logic process that I can rework in my head or something tethered.
Nikki: Tethered to something.
Nikki: Exactly right.
Nikki: Exactly right.
Nikki: And then there are some things that almost become mythical, like 1776.
Nikki: Most Americans probably remember that date, but do they remember that?
Nikki: Maybe that's not, like, the important date to know.
Nikki: Maybe the important date to know is ratification of the Constitution.
Nikki: I don't know.
Nikki: And when did that happen?
Nikki: And what is ratification?
Nikki: And what's the Constitution like?
Nikki: All these things that you did.
Salina: Where am I?
Nikki: What's America anyway?
Nikki: So that one in three stat about passing that test came from a 2018 survey of 1000 randomly selected Americans.
Nikki: It also some of my other favorite results from the survey.
Nikki: 72% of respondents either incorrectly identified or were unsure of which states were part of the 13 original colonies.
Nikki: Only 24% stick to the east, guys.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: Only 24% could correctly identify one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for.
Nikki: 37% thought he invented the light bulb.
Nikki: While most knew the cause of the Cold War, 2% said climate change.
Salina: Okay, that's amazing.
Nikki: And then there were alarming.
Nikki: Age disparities care about climate change, and that's something they know.
Nikki: The word the phrase.
Nikki: Those 65 and older scored the best.
Nikki: 74% answered at least six out of ten questions correctly.
Nikki: You could argue maybe they were closer in proximity to the time frame that most of these questions are asking about Benjamin Franklin.
Nikki: Yes.
Salina: Well, that's true.
Salina: You could argue that, yeah.
Nikki: For those under 45, only 19% passed the test.
Salina: Oh, boy.
Nikki: 81% scored 59% or lower.
Salina: That's tough.
Nikki: A follow up survey found differences by state.
Salina: Oh, no.
Salina: In the south, we did the best.
Salina: Go on.
Nikki: Yes.
Nikki: Among Americans from all 50 states in DC.
Nikki: Only those from Vermont were able to pass the test.
Nikki: Only a quarter of those under the age of 45 were able to pass.
Nikki: This is based on a 20 a follow up 2019 survey.
Nikki: Nationally, only four in ten pass the exam.
Nikki: Georgians were the 6th lowest performers so it's better than last place.
Salina: That's somewhere with, like, our health stats, too.
Nikki: It all sort of comes together.
Nikki: My home state of South Carolina was only two notches higher and possibly as you just alluded to unsurprisingly, the lowest performing states were disproportionately Southern.
Salina: It's like you're terrifying me before we take this test.
Nikki: I think it's a learning opportunity, though.
Salina: Yeah, I do too.
Nikki: I do think to your point, we learned all of this growing up, but you figure you started maybe in like my daughter's learned some things in first grade.
Nikki: So let's say first grade.
Nikki: If you can retain first grade until maybe like 10th or 11th, when you take that last civics class or geography or whatever it is, and then you don't talk about it again for a really long time because you go off to college and maybe you take a geography class unless you exempted from AP or something.
Nikki: But otherwise you're not really talking about these basic American facts.
Nikki: I don't know that it's really fair to hold people to the standard that they're going to remember this stuff they learned their whole lives.
Nikki: But I think it's important then to take that opportunity and say, dang, maybe I should really remember what the Constitution is if I'm going to argue something's unconstitutional.
Salina: Or like, I feel like it's probably more valuable for us to spend more time on true civics than like, Bull Run.
Salina: Yeah, that's great, and I love history, and I think that's important.
Salina: But you need to know what the three branches of government are.
Salina: But that's the need to know why.
Nikki: That's the part that's hardest to hold people's attention.
Nikki: That's why only a subsect of Americans are bureaucrats and politicians, because there's only a small proportion who really care to understand how it works.
Nikki: The rest of us are just content to trust that somebody else more knowledgeable knows it.
Salina: You just described life, man.
Nikki: So life.
Nikki: This test could either make us feel good about ourselves, make us feel bad about ourselves, or we could take it as a neutral and take it as a learning opportunity.
Salina: I like the learning opportunity.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: And I feel like I just want to throw in there that it's like a serious issue, though.
Salina: The path to citizenship is long, I think ten steps, and I think people I've just seen news programs and stuff on it before, or where they describe how many years and how long.
Salina: And the reason I bring that up is because I think that there is this thought that people are just skipping over the system and it's so easy.
Nikki: Oh, yeah.
Salina: But I just think that in addition to maybe the fact that we could amp up our civil knowledge, we could also amp up our knowledge in that area too, so that we could maybe be a little bit more empathetic to people.
Nikki: I'm glad you brought that up because I think to me, inherently, the fact that you need to speak basic English.
Nikki: English is a terrifying language.
Nikki: It is really challenging to learn.
Nikki: And so people have to speak basic English to take this test.
Nikki: So there is inherently a step of learning in there.
Nikki: On top of that, they have to understand basic English.
Nikki: But I would argue that early civics, early American history is not basic English.
Nikki: Constitution is a very long word.
Nikki: Length alone, that's a challenging word.
Nikki: So yes, on the one hand, just like once you've gotten to the point of being able to apply for naturalization, it's hard.
Nikki: But even the steps before that, you have to navigate a system that is built in a way that Americans have trouble navigating it born Americans, I should say, like born and raised in this system.
Nikki: I have trouble going to the DMV to your point earlier, I have trouble going to the Social Security office and making sure I have the right forms.
Nikki: They say crap like N 400 form.
Nikki: Like that means anything to me, right?
Nikki: I don't know what an N 400 form is.
Nikki: I can Google it as well as the next person, but then I'm lost in a labyrinth of government websites.
Nikki: So none of it is easy.
Nikki: If you are a natural born American and you can walk right into the Social Security office and get your daughter's name changed with no trouble, then you can tell me how easy it is for these people to become citizens.
Nikki: Because I can tell you I'm educated.
Nikki: I'm just generally, I like to think worldly wise, smart person.
Nikki: I can't do those things easily.
Nikki: So I don't think it's easy.
Salina: Yeah, and I will tell you too, that just the fingerprinting alone and this is like not for citizenship, but if you're here on a green card, you have to get your fingerprints done once a year and it's like $900 a year.
Nikki: Oh my God, that's a lot of money.
Nikki: The other thing that as I was putting this segment together, but I didn't know all the specifics, I don't want to bring it up, but families do get torn apart in this system.
Nikki: And so I used to work with someone who was married to someone who is not a US citizen and again, educated, worldly wise.
Nikki: And they had so much trouble navigating what made him eligible or how to keep him eligible that he ended up being deported for an amount of time and back to an island that was so rampant with crime that I believe he was mugged within his first day of being back there.
Nikki: So then she's separated by an ocean and some states from her husband while they try to navigate the system.
Nikki: So I understand that even on the government side, immigration is challenging because it's a checks and balances, right?
Nikki: Like it's a careful balance of making sure we're not overpopulated, making sure that we're allowing people to come who are going to be good citizens.
Nikki: And worthy of the name of an American citizen.
Nikki: But then there's the family side of it and the person side of it.
Salina: Yeah, I think that it's so interesting that you brought up, too, when all these laws started to happen around World War One because as you were talking about some of this and I was thinking about the complicated systems and I'm like so at some point in time we have to think about this even being an issue.
Salina: It has to become an issue.
Salina: Then we react to it.
Salina: We're largely a reactive planet, right.
Salina: And so some societies are more reactive or proactive than others.
Salina: But just thinking about how complicated a system has to be in the first place to get to this point, it's just a lot.
Salina: It makes me want to nap.
Nikki: And I struggle because I'm constantly torn between wanting America to be better and being like a really strong patriot because I am probably one of the more patriotic people who's also critical of the system and it's also the great experiment for a reason.
Nikki: America is building as we go.
Salina: I think you said something really important there.
Salina: Well, a couple of important things.
Salina: Both of those actually.
Salina: Generally everything you're saying, yes, good job.
Salina: But what I was really going to say is contrary to what some people believe, you can be critical of the system and highly patriotic.
Salina: And maybe, just maybe, that makes you the most patriotic of all.
Salina: Because wanting to hold a place to a high standard to do good things and make the right choices feels like a check mark in my book.
Salina: It doesn't mean that you're somehow against your own country because you want more for it.
Salina: Honestly, that's how I feel about the south.
Nikki: You're right.
Salina: I want more for us.
Salina: I want us to do better than 6th lowest.
Nikki: But we also have to strive for.
Salina: That as well, which is why I go nap after this.
Nikki: So what we're going to do, Salina, you have the link to this practice test.
Nikki: We're going to take the practice test.
Salina: You're going to escort me out of.
Nikki: The country in cups.
Salina: Okay, great.
Nikki: We're going to record this whole thing while we take it.
Nikki: So I want to tell the people that I may decide to fast forward a little bit or we may just keep it just as it is.
Nikki: See what the listening 100.
Salina: Good job.
Nikki: See how the listening goes.
Salina: Okay, I'm ready.
Nikki: I'm not.
Salina: Oh, okay.
Nikki: Don't start.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: I guess it doesn't matter.
Nikki: It's not timed.
Salina: All right.
Nikki: Ready?
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: Just take it.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: But talk out loud.
Nikki: Yeah, if you want to.
Salina: All right.
Nikki: Go.
Salina: It's loading.
Nikki: You don't have to talk through everyone, just anything that is like challenging for you.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: So my first question is about the judicial branch.
Nikki: What does it do?
Salina: Oh, yeah.
Salina: Our questions are different.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: And my first question is who is the chief justice of the United States.
Salina: Now, I wasn't expecting that one, so I thought we might start off softer, but Biden was the first option.
Nikki: Now, one important caveat I was reading to Salina just before we started.
Nikki: Apparently, the actual test is not multiple choice according to this web page.
Nikki: Something else I had, which is a government web page, something else I had read indicated it was multiple choice.
Nikki: So what we are taking is multiple choice.
Salina: And who even knows then?
Nikki: I just don't even know.
Salina: Have you answered yours yet?
Nikki: I answered my first one.
Nikki: I'm onto the second one.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: Are we saying if we got it correct or not?
Nikki: Yeah, we can.
Salina: Okay, I got it.
Nikki: Correct.
Salina: Oh, good.
Salina: It's John G.
Salina: Roberts Jr.
Salina: Well done.
Nikki: How many amendments does the Constitution have?
Nikki: Is my next one.
Salina: Okay?
Salina: And mine is when must all men register for the Selective Service?
Nikki: I got mine, right.
Nikki: It's 27.
Salina: This one's a little tough for me.
Salina: When must all men register for the Selective Service?
Nikki: And that's the draft, right?
Nikki: Yes.
Salina: I got it wrong.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: I'm a woman minus.
Nikki: Who is the first president?
Salina: Oh, that's a good one.
Nikki: George Washington.
Salina: Do you want to know when you have to register if you're a man?
Nikki: Is it 18 to 25?
Salina: 26.
Salina: Yeah, but we didn't have the draft anymore.
Salina: You're going to cut all this, right?
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: What do you mean?
Salina: We have the draft.
Nikki: We do.
Nikki: You have to register for selective service.
Nikki: They don't necessarily have the draft enabled.
Salina: Enabled.
Salina: Okay, well, that's a now we're just playing dicey with the terms.
Nikki: We elect a us.
Nikki: Senator for how many years?
Nikki: Six.
Salina: And a representative for two.
Nikki: Two?
Salina: Was that your question?
Nikki: Yeah, shinks for helping me.
Salina: But I was I was gonna say two anyway.
Salina: Name one.
Nikki: US.
Nikki: Territory.
Nikki: I'm going with Guam.
Salina: Sounds good.
Salina: Correct.
Salina: What is the name of the speaker of the House of Representatives now?
Salina: It's not Joseph Biden.
Salina: It's not Chuck Schumer anymore.
Salina: Oh, it's Kevin now.
Salina: Old Kevin.
Salina: Old McCarthy.
Salina: I knew that one.
Nikki: Mine was about what the Declaration of Independence did.
Nikki: Now it's what did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
Salina: You going to say your answers.
Nikki: Oh, the first one was declared our independence from Great Britain.
Nikki: Second one was Freed the slave.
Salina: How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
Salina: Well, that's up for debate right now, but currently it's nine.
Salina: I mean, it's not up for debate, but there's a lot of people who think maybe we should change that.
Salina: When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?
Salina: Well, okay, so it's April 15, but you can apply for an extension.
Nikki: That's correct.
Nikki: What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
Nikki: This is the constitution written Sounds right.
Salina: What's the other options?
Salina: That's it.
Nikki: Constitution was written.
Salina: I'm like keep going.
Nikki: Who do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance to.
Salina: The United States of.
Salina: America and to the Republic for which it stands.
Salina: When do we celebrate Independence Day?
Salina: I like this.
Nikki: 1.
Salina: July 4.
Nikki: This president during the Great Depression in World War II.
Salina: I know that.
Salina: Roosevelt FDR.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote.
Salina: Describe one of them.
Salina: Citizens by birth only can vote.
Salina: Only citizens with a job can vote.
Salina: Citizens 17 and older can vote.
Salina: Citizens 18 and older can vote.
Salina: De.
Nikki: I just got your Selective Services question.
Salina: You're welcome.
Salina: For helping you get that right.
Nikki: Name of the vice president.
Nikki: One right or freedom from the First Amendment.
Salina: But what if they made you go, like, six vice presidents back?
Salina: Like how I mean, this whole thing yeah.
Salina: You'd really just, like, not probably do well on that.
Salina: I wouldn't.
Salina: Vice presidents are hard.
Salina: Sorry.
Salina: But they are.
Nikki: Mine was one right or freedom from the First Amendment?
Nikki: I chose freedom of speech.
Salina: It's complicated.
Salina: That freedom of speech.
Salina: What is not, though?
Salina: The political party of the president's now.
Salina: President now republican.
Salina: Green.
Salina: Democrat or Independent?
Salina: Let's go.
Salina: A Democrat.
Salina: What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance?
Salina: So I just got yours.
Nikki: Hold on 1 second.
Nikki: What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?
Nikki: I almost clicked.
Nikki: The Declaration of Independence.
Salina: That was close.
Salina: Bill of Rights.
Salina: That was close.
Nikki: I think it's the Bill of Rights.
Salina: It is.
Nikki: I almost panicked.
Salina: That one.
Salina: It's just the civil service or not the civil service, but the draft.
Salina: I didn't know about elective service.
Nikki: Thank you.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: All I know is, like, sometimes that comes up on forms you have to fill out, but I don't pay any attention to it because it says men.
Nikki: It's the one thing we get to ignore.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: You have to remind your husband I have PMS.
Salina: Name the US.
Salina: War between the north and the south.
Salina: Well, we are very familiar with this one in Georgia history that we take about 17 times.
Salina: That would be the Civil War.
Salina: In what month do we vote for the President?
Salina: November.
Nikki: November.
Nikki: See, this is one.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: When was the Constitution written?
Salina: Written?
Salina: Well, give me the years and I've lost them.
Nikki: The answer is 1787.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: See, that's that stuff of, like, 1776 has nothing to do nothing to do with it.
Nikki: I'm done.
Nikki: Oh, that was my last one.
Nikki: I got 100.
Nikki: But that's because you listen to my.
Salina: The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the US.
Salina: Constitution.
Salina: Name one of the writers.
Salina: John Adams, james Madison, george Washington or Thomas Jefferson I want to say I'm down to John Adams or Thomas Jefferson.
Nikki: I was going to say Adams jefferson james Madison.
Nikki: Oh, dang.
Salina: My goodness.
Salina: See, why is mine harder?
Salina: We elect this us.
Salina: Senator.
Salina: For how many years we've been there?
Salina: Six.
Salina: What is freedom of religion?
Salina: Okay, you can or you cannot?
Salina: I might get to past this.
Salina: I'm almost done.
Salina: You're fine.
Salina: Who do the United States fight in World War II?
Salina: Austria, Hungary, Japan and Germany.
Salina: Japan, China and Vietnam.
Salina: The Soviet Union, Germany, Germany and Italy.
Salina: Japan, Germany and Italy.
Salina: No.
Salina: Japan, Germany and Italy.
Salina: Sorry, I was going all I know.
Nikki: It, I'm not speaking up anymore.
Salina: And then there were 13 original states named three good luck sucker.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Well, you know, in all fairness, I could see how this could be a little hard.
Salina: I think some of those, like Kentucky hard, a little difficult, but I'm going to go with Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina.
Salina: Yes.
Salina: Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government.
Salina: What is one power of the federal government?
Salina: To provide schooling and education, to provide protection by the police.
Salina: To declare war or to issue driver's licenses.
Salina: I know congress can declare a war and that's written into the Constitution.
Salina: Somebody go with that one.
Salina: Yes.
Salina: Who makes federal laws?
Salina: The President?
Salina: Congress, the Supreme Court or the states?
Salina: It's not the states.
Salina: No.
Salina: Not the president?
Salina: No.
Salina: Not the Supreme Court?
Salina: No, it's Congress.
Salina: Have to really think about that how.
Nikki: A bill becomes a law.
Salina: You got 100, didn't you?
Nikki: I did.
Salina: Well, you got something wrong with me.
Salina: I did.
Nikki: That's true.
Nikki: You passed.
Salina: I did.
Salina: I passed.
Nikki: So that's the point.
Nikki: Now, that said, though, it would be a little itchy remiss of me.
Nikki: Not to mention again, if this were not an actual multiple choice test holy shiitake mushrooms.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: I'm still sweating about the James Madison articles of me, too.
Nikki: The Republic articles of Federation.
Salina: Whatever.
Salina: Stop on the right.
Nikki: So I feel okay about that.
Salina: It's okay.
Nikki: But I think that goes to show, one, like we said, if that hadn't been multiple choice, that would have been really challenging.
Nikki: Two, I think many of us owe it to ourselves to go back and learn some of these things.
Nikki: I personally don't think it really matters who wrote some of these things because I don't know anything about them.
Nikki: So then I'd have to learn about them, which may be a bridge too far.
Salina: Learn something.
Salina: Learn something, blah, blah, blah.
Salina: What do you want me to do with Designing Women?
Nikki: What do they want me to learn?
Salina: Here's a lesson, here's a lesson, here's a lesson.
Salina: Undo it.
Nikki: I learned from the best.
Nikki: Do you feel like a citizen now?
Salina: I feel like a citizen most days.
Nikki: I think, yeah, that's true.
Nikki: I pay my taxes.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Lot of it does feel like I'm surprised they don't bake that in somehow.
Salina: But what do you know about taxes?
Nikki: They didn't even teach us about taxes in school, because if they had, then we would have the power.
Nikki: So with that, we'll come to the end of this week's extra sugar.
Nikki: If you take the test, report back to us.
Nikki: We want to hear whether or not we're alone, whether you're in with us, as, I guess, passers or not with us.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: But if you're going to say something about the selective service, I just don't want to hear it.
Nikki: Because she's a woman.
Nikki: It doesn't matter to her.
Nikki: Right, you know the drill.
Nikki: You can follow along with us and engage on Instagram and Facebook at Sweett and TV tiktoksweetvpod.
Nikki: Our email address is sweettvpod@gmail.com.
Nikki: We're also on YouTube.
Nikki: I left that one out.
Nikki: Sorry, guys.
Nikki: We're on YouTube.
Salina: Sweet TNTV at 43971 form four oh nine.
Nikki: Our website is WW dot sweettv.com and come back next week for a brand new sweet tea and TV take on designing women.
Nikki: This has been this week's extra sugar.
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