If you know about Common Core, the North Dakota oil boom, and the leader of Israel, then you might be a conservative. The Pew Research Center conducted a News IQ poll from Sept. 25-28 quizzing people on their news knowledge. On average, a conservative respondent answered 5.7 of the 12 questions correctly, while the average Democrat correctly identified 5. (You can test your own news knowledge here.) “Differences in news knowledge across partisan groups are relatively modest, though Republicans tend to do somewhat better than Democrats overall,” Pew reported. “On other issues, such as the unemployment rate, there are hardly any differences in news knowledge between Republicans and Democrats. Just 38% of Republicans and 34% of Democrats know that the unemployment rate is currently closest to 6%. Many Americans overestimate the current unemployment rate: 27% say it is closest to 9%, while an additional 18% think the rate is closest to 12%,” which only further highlights the recovery is not yet felt by most Americans. Perhaps conservatives know more because they understand a self-governing people must be informed. And don’t forget how much Democrats depend on low-information voters. More…