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.
Author: Rick Shenkman
Publisher: Basic Books
Customer Reviews
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Maybe we aren't as stupid as some folks think
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<br /> 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.
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<br /> 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.
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<br /> It's the perfect "bumblebee argument".
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<br /> 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.
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<br /> 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.
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<br /> 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?
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<br /> 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.
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<br /> 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.
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<br /> 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.
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<br /> 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.
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