Well, let me spell it out for you.
To prove you have a basic understanding of “how government works,” you would have to take a test of some sort.
Tests, historically, have always been biased towards some privileged group. Even things like I.Q. tests were discovered to be biased in many ways (culturally, socially, economically), and even most universities and colleges recognize the problem even in the gold standard SAT and ACT such that only 4% of such institutions even require such a test.
Add politics to the testing process, and you’ll have Republicans or those more interested in power than equality making sure that liberals, those who don’t have the same view of the role and mission of government, and anyone else they can force into an “incorrect” answer doesn’t pass the test, and therefor is ineligible to be a candidate.
While all this is avoidable, who’s to say that such a test wouldn’t be legislated to only be held once per lottery, cost $100,000 to take, require a month off of work, and require 100% correct answers to pass, with the questions being so convoluted and confusing that even a Constitutional Scholar wouldn’t be able to answer them without committing treason, but which the pre-chosen elites have already been given the answers to?
And that’s exactly what happened with the literacy tests. They started out with the idea that if you can’t read, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote, and bloomed from there to a tool that could prevent, or allow, anyone to vote depending on what the test-giver wanted.
35 years old, or not, is clear and easy, and is one of three criteria for president. We just saw, with Obama, an attempt to use one of the others, being a native born citizen, to remove him from office, however inept and insane the attempt was. We’re about to see if the third criteria, not having aided or abetted sedition, will apply for the orange turd, and honestly I’m not holding my breath given the current Supreme Court.
In short, power corrupts, politics is about power, all tests are biased, and any test for office will be politicized and biased towards the political ends of those who make the tests. If you still see a leap you don’t understand, please let us know where it is.