Calling Rat! Bring Your "No Stupidity Zone" Sign!

Rick Shenkman wants to sell his book about U.S. voter stupidity, so he softens the rhetoric. However, in this blog, the truth shall set you free! It's no accident that in this blog the followers of the Grand Old Party are referred to as "Dumbos." The comic little elephant wasn't stupid, but his name fits the majority of folks who supported The Dubster — not once (Had enough?) — but twice: go to Google and look it up in Googleunder U. S. Elections: 2000, 2004. Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us twice, shame on The Dubster. Those same Dumbos will vote for The Geezer as well. In his new blog, Shenkman will award Dunce Caps for our upcoming political conversation in 2008. The ultimate stupid political argument gets 5 Dunce Caps. I'd just bring in Rat and let him bash the stupids over the head with his "No Stupidity Zone" sign. Full disclosure: I'd give this blog at least 3 Dunce Caps most of the time. If this is (fair & balanced) hebetude, so be it.


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The Dunce Cap Scorecard
By Rick Shenkman

It would be stupid to say that the American people are stupid--as stupid as saying the American people are smart. It's impossible and silly to generalize. But our politics are often stupid. And there are times when no other word, harsh as it is, seems to capture the essence of the turn politics have taken.

But what do we mean by stupid? To help determine whether a mistake is just a mistake or whether it's a sign of rank stupidity I have devised a five-part test. Call it the Dunce Cap Scorecard.

On the blog we'll rank debates by how stupid they get. One or two Dunce Caps is normal for any debate. Five Dunce Caps and you know you're in a deep pile of stupid.

These are the five tests:

First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who’s in charge.

Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events.

Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts.

Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually exclusive, or contrary to the country’s long-term interests.

Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.

[Rick Shenkman is the editor and founder of George Mason University's History News Network, a website that features articles by historians on current events. An associate professor of history at George Mason University, he can regularly be seen on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. He is a New York Times best-selling author of six history books, including Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History and Presidential Ambition: How the Presidents Gained Power, Kept Power and Got Things Done (HarperCollins, 1999). His latest book is Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter (Basic Books, June 2008).

Educated at Vassar and Harvard, Mr. Shenkman is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter and the former managing editor of KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. In 1997 he was the host, writer and producer of a prime time series for The Learning Channel inspired by his books on myths. In 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. He gives lectures at colleges around the country on several topics, including American myths and presidential politics.]

Copyright © 2008 History News Network

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