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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Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 3143
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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Condition: Brand New Hardcover -- Last copy in stock!
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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 30 more reviews...
 Worth Reading October 2, 2008
This is a book worth reading. I even took some notes when the author mentioned 5 'defining characteristics' of stupidity. It belongs to a number of books written recently by some of our species' most intelligent ones: Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? Richard Dawkins' God Delusion, Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation, and
perhaps, David Livingston Smith's The most dangerous animal: human nature and the origins of war, etc..
If we try to recall, we can easily find numerous such books perhaps in every period of history. It seems now a well-established fact that majority of human beings are stupid, delusional, dangerous, or any combination of these.
But an equally amazing and arguable fact is that human beings are making great progresses in many fronts at an increasingly faster pace in most nations in the world. It is possible that this ability of scrutinizing one's own weaknesses makes human race truly great.
I wish somebody could follow up on this topic and write a book
entitled Just Why Are We So Stupid.
 Disappointed September 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Perhaps reading this book would help someone who is very young and hasn't been interested in politics. Unfortunately it taught me nothing I didn't already know. I thought or hoped that it would go much deeper in how the drama of politics affects people's thoughts and reasoning. Which is where I find much stupidly, but unfortunately this topic wasn't well covered. I believe that people are so divided because of the severe propaganda that's out there and is what's dismantling what's left of our democracy! And they actually believe they are being patriotic!
I wish people would educate themselves - pro's and con's about each issue before voting or don't vote.
 Don't we know the answer? (3.25 *s) September 18, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Part of the motivation for this book is trying to understand the prevalence of the questionable, often irrational, practice and policies of our government, especially at the federal level. It is the Bush administration in the eyes of the author that has been most egregious is pursuing policies against the best interests of the nation. However, it is the American public, The People, who are the focus of this book. It is the citizens in a democracy who must have their eyes on political dealings and elect competent leaders. In this endeavor, the author contends we have failed miserably.
The foremost problem standing in the way of the American public in making sound political decisions, according to the author, is sheer ignorance of history, current events, politics and government, economics, world affairs, and the like, despite the fact that more people graduate from college than ever before. The author points out that in the past voters, less formally educated, had ties to community groups, labor unions, and political parties to whom they looked for politically related information and guidance on voting.
Sloganeering, manipulation, focusing on personality, and other superficialities are hardly only modern day phenomena. The author refers to the political campaign of the marginally qualified William Henry Harrison in 1840 and the successful slogan of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." On the other hand, the gangly, unkempt Abraham Lincoln, with a poor speaking voice, did get elected in a campaign of ideas - something that could not occur in today's political climate of empty political posturing and staged spectacles.
While the author notes that newspaper reading is decidedly down, once the principal means of obtaining good political information, the practice of being on top of the public's views through constant polling and the immediacy and vastness of television coverage of world affairs should, in theory, be immensely empowering to the citizenry. However, on closer examination, polling is invariably slanted and more importantly there are no pre-conditions for those taking polls to actually know anything about the topic. Television is so oriented toward the quick visual that facts are generally overwhelmed. One needs look no further than to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to see what poor and great television appeal can mean to a politician, regardless of substance.
The founding fathers were extremely wary of The People and placed countless checks in the Constitution to blunt their direct impact. But in modern times, the wisdom and the rights of the public to be involved in the political process has become an unassailable myth. It would be suicide for a politician to question its veracity. But that myth is cynical in the extreme. The socially isolated individual, devoid of broader ties, is highly vulnerable to simplistic appeals, if not outright manipulation, especially as practiced through television. It is the personal appeal of candidates that is sold, not a coherent set of ideas held by a candidate and his party. There are few attempts from candidates or from most of the media to truly inform and educate the electorate. It is the propagandized voter that is desired, despite the myth of the wise People.
The author offers little to change the current situation where ignorance drives the political process. His suggestion that college freshmen be eligible for federal tuition subsidies for passing a weekly current events test is almost amusing. Internet sites and blogging are geared to appeal to a narrow set of views, not for general education. The same could be said for the proliferation of cable TV, Fox TV being the prime example. The result is ignorant polarization.
The book hardly presents anything that is not widely known among those who make efforts to be informed about political matters. It's hard to say for whom the book is targeted. The politically ignorant will not be reading it. There is a rather strong shortcoming in the book. And that is the fact that the author does not address the narrow ownership of the media by huge corporations, whose sole purpose is to show profit. That fact alone makes the possibilities of a media empire having an agenda of educating the public be virtually negligible. Corporations are not neutral in the political process, including media corporations. When intelligent, informed ordinary citizens can have access to media outlets, democracy may be possible, but not until.
Worth a read, but a bit off base September 16, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Book to review:
Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter by Rick Shenkman.
Do I agree or disagree? Are the people stupid? No, they are average, if you include everybody, this is a mathematical certainty. "Likely voters" are probably above average. Perhaps, well above average. Since the book is about voters, then these people are NOT stupid, by definition. And it is these people, the voters who actually vote, that the author is talking about. Therefore, I do not agree.
What about his solutions? That one is easy to answer: his solutions are self serving to Democrats, for the most part. He laments the loss of party bosses and union's power. Yet it is not as partisan as some of the stuff I've come across. Hence, the higher rating. The book is worth reading, but it's off base.
Quotes: (comments in parentheses)
"Instead of admitting our flaws, we settled, somewhat defensively, on the myth that we are a good people with great and noble aims."
(Are we then a bad people with poor and ignoble aims? Perhaps he meant to say we aren't perfect, but it reads a little differently here.)
"Democracy is rooted in the assumption that we are creatures of reason. If instead, as seems likely, we human beings are hard-wired to mythologize events and our own history, we are left with the paradox that our confidence in democracy rests on a myth."
(But look at the quote below:)
"The consensus in the political science profession is that voters are rational."
(If voters aren't really stupid as I suggest, but are rational as suggested above- then what explains their ignorance of politics? Well, the ignorance goes deep as he points out, but his discussion is more often about the general population, not just voters as the title states. Perhaps it is something else:)
"With respect to television: Research proves conclusively that viewers find politics boring."
(It is up to politicians to make themselves interesting. But this guy blames the people. By the way, do TV ratings distinguish between the general population and likely voters? )
"Never in our history has the individual voter been at a greater disadvantage. He has been left to his own devices to figure out what he should think, where his interests lie, and how he should vote."
(The author believes that the public needs more guidance to help enlighten them. But his solutions appear self serving with respect to Democrats. How convenient. By the way, I'm all for improving education. But Democrats have a stranglehold on education. If the people are getting dumber, whose fault is THAT? )
"Rather, our chief problem- or one of own chief problems- is one that underlies all these concerns: the limited capacity of the general public."
( As we have seen, it isn't all about "limited capacity". It is also about interest. Evidently, it is more than just capacity and interest. The people have become mental cases, as we see in the next quote:)
"Psychiatrists have a word for this. It's called denial. It's an American disease."
(He refers to a story about a woman who won't give up her car even though the price of gas has gone way up. Perhaps he is being too hard on the woman. But he generalizes out to the general public when he says it's an American disease. This isn't psychology, it is a condition we find ourselves in. I tried going without a vehicle myself, but mass transit isn't a viable option in Houston. So, I'm back to driving. Sure, we have an energy problem here. I've even written about it long ago and predicted this mess we are in now. The author has a point about energy, but leaders are supposed to lead. This is where the true failure is. The leaders are failing. Stop blaming the people. But he insists that it's the people's fault:)
"...the masses are guilty of denial it is very difficult for critics to stand up and point this out."
(It wasn't for me. Maybe politicians are too slavish to the polls as he indicates in his book. But, can we explain this as a case of sour grapes? Since Democrats have been losing, they have become angry as author observes:)
"Caught in the contradictions of their own ideology- their love of The People and The People's seemingly misguided rejection of them at the polls- they turned angry. They remain angry."
(Who's in denial? If they are too slavish to polls and too cowardly to go against public opinion, then whose fault is that? )
"One of the largely unspoken assumptions of these liberal analyses is that people are easily duped."
(If liberals believe that the people are stupid and easily duped, then liberals have little respect for the people. Maybe the voters can see that pretty well, and that is how liberals lose elections. Maybe the people, or voters, aren't as dumb as the liberals believe. Perhaps this book should have been about stupid, liberal leaders. )
Best Depiction of Worst Case, Needs Sense of Best Case September 12, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I cannot improve on the reviews by Kerry Walters and Retired Reader, in that order. I was drawn to this book by the fact that it is the "other" book that readers buy when considering Joe Trippi's great book, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything which will be out in a new expanded and revised edition at the end of this month (September 2008).
I am continually shocked by the ignorance and apathy as well as the growing obesity of the American people, and this book has shaken me to the roots. To not know three branches of government, and to be violently opposed to immigrants who do, turns my world upside down.
What I want to do here, subordinating my contribution to those of reveiewers Kerry Walters and Retired Reader, is list 9 books that illuminate 1) why our blue collar population is devastatingly sidelined; and 2) what the rest of us who have NOT sold out, are trying to do about it. Each of the books I list I have reviewed, and linked to other books.
On Being Sidelined (ignorance is imposed):
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
On Hope for the Collective:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Imagine: What America Could be in the 21st century
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
There are so many others--consider using my lists for broad exploration. I really admire the critical mass that reviewers now provide, especially those that provide summative reviews, not just critical reviews.
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