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.
This could have been such a good book December 1, 2008 What an amazing title and what a mediocre book. I was very disappointed. It fails to deliver any enlightening reasons for (or realistic solutions to) the civic ignorance we all know to be pervasive.
Most of the book is an unfocused, rambling attack on conservatives because they "pretend" to care for "The People" when in fact, according to the author, they don't. He "proves" this by citing obscure conservative writers from 50 years ago. Ronald Reagan did not agree with these people, according to the author, so he therefore must have been a "media manipulator."
And so it goes, for 183 pages.
There are criticisms of Democrats/Liberals as well, but the nature of these criticisms--and the point of them--is unclear. Perhaps they are just the author's attempt to bring balance to an anti-Bush screed masquerading as something nobler.
I did get one good thing out of it. In the acknowledgments the author thanks his agent, William Clark. If Mr. Clark can sell a project like this to a publisher like Basic Books, he can sell anything to anybody! I recommend that all aspiring authors contact him. The guy must be magic.
Not so fast! November 9, 2008 0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I purchased this book with great anticipation because I am also exasperated about our country's seeming lack of interest or knowledge in domestic and foreign affairs and our mostly unenlightened view of politics. Mr. Shenkman may have provided some interesting observations about responses to surveys and the book has some laudable points to make but it fails to pass the test of real knowledge for two primary reasons:
1)He falls victim to some of the ills he posits as the cause of our societal ignorance. For example, he notes that both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush used Social Security surpluses to hide the impacts of their tax cuts. It is true that the government has not been honest about what is happening to Social Security receipts (Congress has spent them all). But I would ask: What impacts? In both the Readgan and Bush cases, the federal government raised more revenue after the tax cuts than before and it is a fact that Bush never instituted tax cuts - he instead signed a bill into law to cut marginal tax rates. Since most of the mainstream media has only a passing acquaintance with economics, they routinely report on the tax cuts, which, of course, never happened. If you get more of something in the future by taking an action, the effect of the action is not a cut, but an increase. I am guessing that many people who read this will be astounded or disagree, but, as Casey Stengle used to say "You can look it up." Using Office of Management Budget figures we can learn that the US Government collected over $800 billion more in taxes in 2007 than it did in 2001. This is a decrease? What no one wants to confront is that fact that spending is the cause of these massive deficits - not taxes. During the entire eight years of the Clinton Administration, the U.S. Government spent 148 million more that it took in - a relatively modest amount. During the entire Bush Administration, the Federal Government spend 2 trillion more than it took in, even though it took in almost 4 trillion more in taxes than under the Clinton Administration! Therefore, tax rate cuts actually appear to have lessened the impact of the increased spending. I did not mean for this to become a treatise on fiscal policy, it is just to show that even our author seems to have a limited grasp on some issues while postulating that the American Political Body is stupid. This is not to say that some segments of our population did not pay more taxes under Bush - the rich actually paid a higher percentage of overall taxes under Bush than under Clinton. Facts are inconvenient things!
2) The second issue is related to the first - who can you trust to tell you the truth? Have you ever seen a story in the media that just related the facts as I have noted? Maybe people still believe that Saddam Hussien was collaborating with Al Qaeda because they don't trust the main stream media to tell the truth. The 911 Report actually notes that Iraq and Al Qaeda were collaborating, however, the collaboration was not linked to 911. Another reason not to trust the media is their complete lack of curiosity about their favorite politicians. I have not read any major stories in the main stream media about all of the Democratic party elected officials who where not only urging, but demanding, that Bush invade Iraq. Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, Joe Biden and others were demanding that the president invade and sooner rather than later. However, when things went awry, none of those politicians were held to account by the media. This is not to say that Mr. Shenkman has not raised an important question. However, this slanted rhetoric and failure to link cause and effect make this a must skip book.
Wow! Save your money. November 5, 2008 2 out of 6 found this review helpful
In this book, Rick Shenkman puts forward the notion that the (relatively) uneducated and ill-informed need to smarten up and take their civic duty more seriously. (For the record, I couldn't agree more. I bought the book because I share that sentiment.)
However, he immediately and unrelentingly totes out his liberal, America-hating, GWU-echoing, revisionist historian background and begins an onslaught of the "myths" of American history, lore, and culture. (Before you purchase this book, do a quick "due diligence" Google search of the author in order to understand the source, flavor, and depth of his liberal bias. It will serve you well if you should end up buying this book.)
Shenkman's political bias is clear and unmistakable from the first chapter on. I stopped trying to make it through within a couple chapters; the invective against anything remotely right of center quickly became an intellectual turn-off, and the arrogance that permeated the prose had the effect of dumping a can of Barlett pears into a pot of chili. Uggh! I'll pass, thanks.
Hope this helps you make your purchase decision. I wouldn't, but hey, that's me.
Jim Albuquerque, NM
Just How Stupid Are We? by Rick Shenkman October 22, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As an immigrant of the 1950s, and now a naturalized citizen, the book was an eye opener for me from the perspective of history of our country. Being a political "junky" and a moderate, it was reasonably possible for an individual like me to predict the future of the country from the last 50 years of experience. That prediction is being mercilessly confirmed by the current events. The narrative of Mr. Shenkman was very educational for a reader in terms of our country's history and allows one to delve into what has gone wrong with our political system, although the author has been relatively subtle and scholarly in his approach. He has stopped a step short of calling a spade "A Spade" when approaching the political and financial leadership of the last 50 years. From the perspective of a reader like me, I would have enjoyed reading the book even more had he done so in no uncertain terms.
Something to Think About October 18, 2008 This book offers some explanations of why intelligent people have some very un-intelligent (read Stupid) ideas about politics and political candidates. It is well written, organized, and easy to read. I thought it was interesting.
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