American Voters

Shenkman’s View on American Voters “Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth about the American Voter,” by Rick Shenkman is a book with an eye opening experience. It was one of the best-selling books on the market in 2008 for a different look into the political issues. By Shenkman asking such a forward provoking question, it automatically catches the reader’s attention. It has you go through an immense variety of approaches and opinions. According to Shenkman, Democrats and Republicans point fingers on who’s to blame for the 2008 presidential elections. Most people think it all had to do with the “bad Bush years” in administration, but Shenkman is convinced that it is “too easy to blame our mess on Mr. Bush” (Shenkman xi). Shenkman is questioning the American voter directly; he believes that we The People should be questioned for the root of the problem. Shenkman’s explains that he has five characteristics of stupidity, but the most important are; ignorance, negligence, and how the American voter depends on myths. (Shenkman 14). Shenkman’s first main point and argument is the American voters’ ignorance. What made Shenkman question the American voters ignorance in the first place was the attack on September 11, 2001. Astonishingly polls taken proved that people really didn’t know what happened on 9/11. In fact “only one in seven Americans could find Iraq on the map (Shenkman 141). People often mistake 9/11, Sudan Hussein, al Qaeda, and the Iraq war to be tied in together. PIPA polls taken in as late as 2004 stated that people linked Iraq and 9/11 and a “persistent 57 percent believed that Saddam Hussein was helping al Qaeda at the time we were attacked” (Shenkman 4). He is ultimately saying that the American people are stubborn, and believed what they wanted even after being confirmed otherwise. The 9/11 Commission directly stated in 2004 that Saddam had not supported al Qaeda (Shenkman 4). Another point that Shenkman stated was clear ignorance on the

Cited: Bartls, Larry M. . "The Irrational Electorate." Wilson Quarterly.1-4. Print. <http://www.princeton.edu/~bartels/how_stupid.pdf>. Shenkman, Rick. Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter. New York: Basic Books, 2008. 242.