Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter | 
 enlarge | Author: Rick Shenkman
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 8586
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0465077714
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.973
EAN: 9780465077717
ASIN: 0465077714
Publication Date: June 9, 2008
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Product Description
Levees break in New Orleans. Iraq descends into chaos. The housing market teeters on the brink of collapse. Americans of all political stripes are heading into the 2008 election with the sense that something has gone terribly wrong with American politics. But what exactly? Democrats blame Republicans and Republicans blame Democrats. Greedy corporate executives, rogue journalists, faulty voting machines, irresponsible defense contractors-we blame them, too. The only thing everyone seems to agree on, in fact, is that the American people are entirely blameless. In Just How Stupid Are We?, best-selling historian and renowned myth-buster Rick Shenkman takes aim at our great national piety: the wisdom of the American people. The hard truth is that American democracy is more direct than ever-but voters are misusing, abusing, and abdicating their political power. Americans are paying less and less attention to politics at a time when they need to pay much more: Television has dumbed politics down to the basest possible level, while the real workings of politics have become vastly more complicated. Shenkman offers concrete proposals for reforming our institutions-the government, the media, civic organizations, political parties-to make them work better for the American people. But first, Shenkman argues, we must reform ourselves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Major disappointment August 29, 2008
I truly enjoyed Shenkman's other books on historical myths, and I loved his tv show on the History Channel in the 1990s. I was really looking forward to reading this book, but was thoroughly disappointed. This book is an elitist, liberal, if not left-wing, piece of garbage. Ironically, Shenkman criticizes the left for wrinting too many Bush-bashing books, this is just another Bush-bashing book. It's not a balanced look at the issue, it's slanted, bitter rant that only explores the liberal-elitist point of view. If you're a Bush-hating liberal who thinks you're better than everyone else you'll love this book. If you're a conservative right-winger you'll hate it. If you're a normal person you'll just be annoyed, don't waste your money. To Richard Shenkan, shame on you!
 Beacoup de August 14, 2008
Just one more title not to be added to the No Child Left Behind reading bibliography. On my first day in French class, we discussed exactly what meant great big bunches of, huge bucket loads of... Well, to answer the question of "Just How Stupid Are We?," the answer is beacoup de. America is captive to sound bites and fear of gays marrying, African-Americans having constitutional rights, even women, and especially poor folks. We have no problem voting against our own best interests to ensure some evil political jackass is re-elected. You explain the manipulation. I cannot. Two great quotes from Shenkman are "More than half of all Americans have some college education- yet they are no more knowledgeable in civics than Americans a half-century ago..." and "Nearly half of the eligible voters don't vote and many of those who do don't seem to know what they're voting for." This book deserves a six star, but I am only awarding four because, in the grand scheme of things, it will not make one whit of difference.
 Ignoramus - alias "The Leader Of The Free World" August 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A light, mildly entertaining book on the subject of American ignorance.
The author provides more evidence (in case you need it) of a very large percentage of Americans being astonishingly, ravishingly ignorant. As Churchill might have said: "...never in the history of the Western world have so many...known so little...about so much."
The book's focus is on the American voter, and it points out that an ignorant American can be relied upon to make uninformed, ignorant decisions at the voting booth, electing representatives who then manipulate their clueless constituents. This is undeniable, and well-deserved.
While the staggering examples of American ignorance and stupidity - in this book, and elsewhere - are quite entertaining, the impact is anything but. The know-nothing syndrome is a crushing burden that America can ill-afford to drag around. If only its impact could be limited to the American cocoon.
As to the remedies, then. Well, we have a bit of a problem here. Expectedly, the book offers no practical solutions, because there aren't any. Ignorance is too deep in the fabric.
Although this is not part of the book review, I do have a proposal. Do what Americans do when all logic fails: legislate. Amend the Constitution. Formally declare ignorance to be a freedom, thereby protecting it under the Constitution. You are free to be ignorant, as it were. Anyone complaining about ignorance could then be branded unpatriotic, and told to shut up. This would terminate all public debates, and it would be the true American way to resolve the issue.
Alternatively, pray for divine intervention. If Americans can hold prayer meetings at service stations for the price of gasoline to fall, then why not this? On second thoughts, this may be a more promising approach.
 Maybe we aren't as stupid as some folks think August 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
In reading this book, one great image comes to mind -- that of Abraham Lincoln and the whiskey barrel that was a common appeal to voters in his early political career.
It represents the great fault Shenkman finds with democracy in America; voters are cynically misled by cheap stunts today just as they were by cheap whiskey in Lincoln's era. Based on my 40 years experience in government and the news meadia, Shenkman is devastatingly correct.
It's the perfect "bumblebee argument".
The Bumblebee Argument describes the aeronautical engineers who used the best physics and aeronautical engineering to prove bumblebees cannot fly. Bumblebees, not being engineers and being too stupid to listen to them, don't know they can't fly. So they go ahead and fly.
Democracy is a bumblebee. Many of the world's finest intellects, from Plato to George W. Bush, concluded democracy is impossible and tried to use their own wisdom to counter the stupidity of The People. It's never worked. The People repeatedly make democracy the best form of government.
This doesn't mean Shenkman is wrong; if anything he's too kind. His emphasis is on the Reagan/Bush years, but much the same could be said of the Roosevelt years, or the Lincoln years, or the Washington years. Like Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, how long did Lincoln stay loyal to incompetents before picking Ulysses S. Grant? How many battles did Washington win?
Stupidity in government is like stupidity in banking -- supposedly run by the best and the brightest and most educated and most ethical folks who ambled into the current financial crisis. It's like stupidity in the auto industry; it's like stupidity in the news media ... in fact, it's like a lot of the stupidity that regularly numbs society.
Shenkman says it's because The People are stupid. His examples will bring tears of frustration to the eyes of every intelligent reader. Rest assured, only the intelligent will read it; everyone else knows it's true (or false) without having to exert any effort.
But he misses the Bumblebee question: How does democracy work? Somehow, from the morass of boobs, bozos and buffoons that is The People, a democracy emerges that is better than any "wise" system. Therein lies the issue; if people now are more stupid, America is in trouble.
If not, which is what I contend, then he's merely proven once again that bumblees can't fly and folks have always been stupid. It's worth reading. Personally, I'm with the bumblebees.
 Shenkman needs to take a course in civics August 8, 2008
5 out of 18 found this review helpful
This is an amazing book because the author is as stupid as The People he decries. He almost had me for a few chapters because his diagnosis of our problem - an uneducated populace - is correct. Then he proceeds to ruin his point by displaying the same lack of knowledge about civics and our Constitution as he criticizes!
Shenkman frequently calls our system of government a "democracy." What we have (or are supposed to have) is a republic. Democracy is an element of our form of government. This is not just a word game; it's a very important distinction that undermines his point.
His secret disdain for The Rich oozes out when he says "Here we are in a Second Gilded Age, when every single person on the Forbes 400 list is a billionaire, and CEO often earn several times more money in a day than their employees do in a year . . . ." Obviously Shenkman does not understand how wealth is created, and seems to harbor an anti-capitalist agenda.
His suggested solutions prove that he does not understand the concept of unalienable rights. He says college students should be required to take a civics test designed by a non-partisan committee (show me where our Constitution gives this role to government) and then the students who perform well on the test should be given a subsidy or scholarship from a special government fund (unbelievable! He just trashed my right to keep and enjoy the fruits of my own labor!) and that this top-down approach, decided by government officials (the very ones whom he just painted as patsies for uneducated voters) is necessary!
He berates The People for the values they/we choose. We're becoming an "entertainment culture." So what? He doesn't approve? Perhaps we should let Rick Shenkman decide what I should value?
He confuses 'cause and effect' with correlation: "While we know the price of a gallon of milk, most of us don't know basic civic facts. Could it be that the more we identify as consumers the less we identify as voters? It would seem so." Well, by that reasoning, we only started eating ice cream cones since 1904, which is the beginning of the period that Shenkman says we got stupid. So maybe ice cream cone-eating causes us to be stupid citizens.
He offers Unions as a solution to voter instruction and a source of education for citizens. Please! I don't even have to touch this Marxist approach.
To say something good about this book: Shenkman gives clear and convincing examples of how voters misinterpret facts, news items, and current events. He also describes the role of marketing in politics, and warns us to beware of agendas cloaked in the mantle of Truth. This was useful.
To summarize: Shenkman correctly identifies a problem in our society, then goes on to offer pseudo-solutions that are already the cause of our problems. His suggestions show that he himself needs a course in civics.
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