While the stats that overwhelm a majority of the book do a great job of supporting Shenkman's primary argument, that the current American voter is less civic-minded and more influenced by TV and entertainment, he uses this argument to bash one side's faith in the voter and the other's manipulation of the voter.

As someone who feels that BOTH parties have good and bad qualities, and BOTH have let us down, I was really hoping for a more unbiased look at American politics. Shenkman spent most of the book appearing only mildly one-sided, only to end the book completely left.

In the end, it felt more like a Michael Moore movie... good stats and facts completely manipulated to be one-sided when they have ample application to politics and corruption in general and across the board.

If you're a Liberal, you'll love it.
If you're a Conservative, you'll be offended.
If you dislike the polarities of both parties, it's a somewhat interesting read if you take it with a grain of salt and leave the author's choice of application behind.

This book presents some very interesting points about the problems with the American voter but does so in a very round about fashion. The first several chapters finds the reader assaulted by a storm of statistics--one after another--which are interesting at first but get boring and redundant eventually. Imagine having the results of 45 independent studies about the reasons why people like vanilla ice cream read to you in succession. After the third set of statistics you can't help thinking, 'Okay, I get. Now what's you point?' It helps if the author takes a moment to connect a statistic to the greater picture to prevent the statistics from combining into one long run-on thought. The statistics are all relevant though some are superfluous.

The next section would offend most Americans who like to believe that there is something inherently superior about our world view. It is very cynical about the average American attention span and propensity to absorb trivial social details (i.e. Britney Spears/Paris Hilton) while lacking similar levels of knowledge about politics, structure of government, and history. I expected the book to take a cynical view from the onset but I was surprised how nonconstructive the criticisms were. The author beats up on us pretty badly (albeit deservedly so). This did finally change in the final chapter with a discussion of social and institutional changes needed to remedy the problem. This discussion was a long time in coming however. Though I appreciated all of the points the author eventually made, I fear many people will get frustrated and tune him out before finishing the book (perhaps proving his point).

The main point of thought: the author suggests that some people are in fact too stupid to vote then provides some insightful food for thought for both sides of the argument. I think this food for thought provides the real value of this book and makes it worth the read despite its flaws.

I think 5th grade was the last time I was talked down to like in this book by this elitist. What the heck was I thinking. I know it is important to listen to other points of view, but this guy will win no one over and I am sure he will alienate some of his side. I lasted two chapters and then moved it to an old iPod, so I could get the pleasure of destroying this drive with a hammer. Someone be sure to let me know if I missed something in the latter part of the book. Don't bother to tell me how uneducated I am, because I got all of that I needed in the those two chapters.