How stupid are American voters?

how stupid are we? stupid enough to elect and re-elect george w bush's administration

We aren't dumb, we just don't utelize our analytical skills. We simply don't make the correlations! We only need to realize that because we matter, our actions matter. I don't think the average american realizes just how blessed we are to be an american. We have tremendous influence we are simply allowing ourselves to be detached from our responsibilities, civic and otherwise.

I still find it hilarious and disturbing that BBC America has more and better coverage of the presidential election than almost every US channel.

Stupid enough that someone has written a whole book about it:
http://current.com/items/89018398_just_how_stupid_are_a...

CNN's latest tendency to report the result of online polls as news is partly to blame. Instead of telling us the story of WHY gas prices are increasing, they say "80% of you say that you can't afford to drive your Hummer anymore!" And they call that news. Jeepers.

I think many Americans take living in this country for granted. They want and expect everything but won't live up to their responsibilities to learn, know and engage. We have turned into a country of idiots and suckers, current.com community excluded.

i have read his book its very eye opening and well written

stupid enough that the rest of the world laughs and scoffs

I don't feel that its the American people's fault, or at least they aren't as largely to blame as a few individuals are... In our country we have roughly 10 companies that control all of the media that we see, some being Disney, AT&T, AOL-Time Warner, and the list continues. In this oligopoly more and more channels begin to emerge under the same companies, and more channels arise, more programing, and its literally becoming a show for every person, whereas when tv first began and up until the mid 1970's you only had 4 channels, ABC, NBC, CBS, and maybe a local broadcast system. this really means that everyone was getting the same news, and everyone was getting the news because there was only 3 things to watch at night. It might be beneficial for us to have the russians take down some of our satellites, sure people would be mad because they wouldn't be able to watch the newest episode of the real world or Nashville star but at least people might be getting the news again.

So it must mean that we should put some simpsons characters in the senate. Then 50% of this nation will identify with and recognize the people who we vote into positions of power.
Every branch of the government could be linked to a different form of obscenely repetitive brain bashing advertainment. Geico lizard will be the executive branch because he is just so speculative.

It's always interesting to see the media jump on the "American's are idiots" bandwagon, when in reality they supply the information and propaganda to the citizens. The unfortunate, untold part of this story is even when American's are educated to what's really going on, nothing can be done about it.

I have always said this! Maybe not, "we Americans are stupid," but in the sense that we are not as informed as we should be. I agree with this guy on how it's really not a Republican or a Democratic party that is at fault. The blame goes to those who cannot control the power that is given to them and in fact take it for granted and misuse it on people. This is all psychological. If you give someone too much power... they will misuse it.

Also, I am a strong believer that people in our government, they want us to be naive and ignorant. I believe that they want us to be fearful of the outside world that is not America. Look at our school system. What are the kids taught in there? As far as I'm concerned, not much. Other kids in other countries can speak up to 4 languages! What about us? We are not enforced to learn any other additional languages because we have so much pride that English is the way to go.

To cut my opinion short, the problem with America is that we are not as educated as we should be and we are not using any analytical skills. Instead, we rely on others to give us information and not questioning them. This is why the majority of the people voted for someone called Mr. Bush these past two elections. The evidence was there... you just had to look really hard for it. That is the problem with this country.

That looks like an interesting book.

It's never a surprise when the depths of american ignorance is revealed but it has made me extremely contemptuous of the american people the more it becomes clear that their ignorance and disinterest in their own politics is directly responsible for the murder of millions of innocent people.

CNN is educating us so it is their fault.

People may hate George w bush im not a big fan of him either but Americans need to do their own research on Obama,and quit supporting him just on his sixty second soundbite of change. He may be a reincarnation of something good or bad whatever you may think

An uniformed or misinformed public/citizen, is easier to hoodwink and control.
As for the media, they report what they are told to report, by the people that pay their salaries i.e. business, large and small.
As for polls and studies, I've seen enough of them to know that numbers can be manipulated to show anything the researcher wants them to.
And for Barrack Obama, now that he has been elected as the democratic runner, I will be doing more research on him, before I vote.
(I didn't vote for baby bush either time)
As for what Argon18 said about accountability...ain't that the truth.

The word is ETHICS. We have people run for office and tell us they have the experience and they have the education and we can have faith they are going to do the right thing.

We are stuck with a 2 party system that is made up of 2 parties that are the same and do the same things and behave the same way.

Neither party is listening to what the people say. The people want to have a choice between the party that may do the bidding of businesses, and the party that may give working people some power. We don't have that in our government. Both sides follow the line that if its good for GM its good for the rest of us.

People have paid attention and they have mostly all decided that it doesn't make any difference which way they vote, they still get the same thing.

I personally believe that we have to keep after this situation or we are going to loose it all! I believe that if we keep a level playing field between management and labor, our democracy and our economy will work like its suppose to. Thats why people strive to get over here in this country, because we supposedly have this magical market place that allows a guy to succeed if he works hard.

Its just not that way anymore. I have a child who is 46 and there hasn't been a decent job market for working people as long as he has been in the market place.

Some say we have all this worker protection. Do you know what freedom we have, in the work place if we don't think the boss is being fair? We have the freedom to resign! How is that a level playing field?

We all know that competition is our greatest tool to have a fair market place. And we see the FCC giving more and more power to fewer and fewer and old white guys in the news media. Which one our 2 political parties is watching out to make sure we have a level playing field?

And Fox new is one of the most watched fake-news networks in the country.

Any connection?

What this tells us is that we need to have stronger civics and government classes in elementary, middle and high school.

At least American Voters's are smart enough to ignore the world's opinions. The world is in much worse shape than the U.S. Democracy has no meaning in the rest of the world. International travel is an eye opening experience.

Someone already mentioned Bush.
Let's see what else?

Believing that 9/11 was not caused by Hijacked jet planes hitting both WTC towers but because of some deep, dark conspiracy.

Another poster mentioned analytical skills...
that I can agree with too.

And I'm sorry, but not holding candidates (especially those running for president) accountable is the same type of problem..

We were led astray very easily by Bush, could it happen again?

I'm very much afraid so!

The media in our country holds a large part of the blame for the relative stupidity of Americans. They are systematically dumbing down their viewers/readers. However, they do base their coverage on ratings, so Americans are in a way responsible for their own stupidity.

I think as citizens it is our responsibility to educate OURSELVES about our government and our elected representatives. Especially in the world we live in now, there is no limit to the information available to us. Most of us are just lazy (and easily distracted) and that is what makes us ignorant, as opposed to stupid.

Americans are the most entertained, but thet lest informed people on the planet.

hahaha says the news station that shows TMZ celebrity type news, and how Cindy McCain stole some cookie recipes. The so-called news stations are apart of the fault too

Blind leading the blind.....

Sheeple syndrome....

Don't blame the American people for being stupid. Blame a severly underfunded school system program. If kids actually learned academics, current events, and social skills instead of outdated and remedial information then perhaps we would have brighter minds instead of brainwashed ones.

CNN isn't doing much to help either, it's high time there was more honest and truthful journalism. They have an obligation to report the truth as journalists and as American citizens. Same thing goes for the rest of the "news" stations(excluding Current).

Hahahahaha.

I don't think it's just Americans. The whole world is full of idiots.

We have a saying in my house:
"Don't apologize, just fix it."
We need to stop the circle-jerk blame game and start educating the people around us. Its obvious that the people here share the same ideologies, overall; does your neighbor, classmate, or even family member? Do they have the same access to knowledge that you do? If not, open a door, window, whatever, to get them in the know. If you help just one person to understand then you've made a difference!
It doesn't matter who is to blame if we all work together to eradicate the ignorance,
Knowledge is power, have you forgotten the message of schoolhouse rock?

I saw this when it aired. My experience tells me that the person who is blaming others is usually most at fault. Here's a question? Where was Mr Sanchez(et al) and his Socratic dialogue when we needed him most? This sounds a lot to me like blaming the rape victim for the rapist actions.

I just want to make a quick comment...if you go back to the last 45 seconds of the video or so you hear him say something about the New York Times printing false information on the front page that would help McCain in his campaign against Obama. As soon as he says that what was on the page was a complete lie, the commentator cuts him off and says something like "yes that is very important..." hmm interesting time to cut off an interview eh?

Americans are not stupid. But our educational system is a shambles. That's why.

I think Juler_Soller is correct. Americans are not stupid. The educational system, however, is an abysmal disgrace.
We have voters who think the Consittution is a living, breathing document that means whatever is popular at the moment, we live in a democracy, the popular vote is how the president is elected, the purpose of the government is control of the people. Some incorrect notions that never should survive high school. Probably the most damning evidence of lack of intelligence is the huge support for Obama. Hhmmm, perhaps Americans, at least some, are not as smart as I thought.

...American voters appear stupid enough to be obsessed with following celebrity lifestyles. Only one in five can tell you how many senators there are....but I bet four in five could tell you about the life and times of Britney Spears. Thats the state of the nation.