I just started reading 'Just How Stupid Are We?' by Rick Shenkman. From his Author's Note:

Many of us cannot wait for the headline: "George W. Bush Leaves Office." Along with millions of Americans, throngs around the world will no doubt cheer the news of his departure, as will I.
But as the reader will see, I am convinced that it is too easy to blame our mess on Mr. Bush. And I do not believe that his replacement by a leader who is less partisan and more competent and sensitive to civil liberties will begin to remedy what ails us.
What went wrong, went wrong long before Mr. Bush's ascendancy. His flaws simply gave us the unwelcome opportunity of seeing what heretofore had remained largely invisible.

No kidding.

This is what confounds me: what the hell happened to the mental capacity and thirst for knowledge of the regular Americans I grew up with? It seems as if the McCain/Palin ticket is the culmination of some kind of weird science, an archetype of militant unpreparedness. And there are Americans who see the fumbling foolishness of these two people and feel...comfortable. Reassured. Enthusiastic, even. Cheering wildly for the same criminals who got us all into this mess.

"Worldview?" Gov. Palin? The blind leading the specious means no view at all.

Sigh.

Well, to combat the stupid:

First, I guess, the citizen has to be willing to acknowledge that something very large is very wrong with our nation.
Then, the citizen has to be willing to put their version of the reasons on the table and examine them dispassionately.

Oh man, we are so scre...no, okay, okay, wait, I got this, I got it:

First, the citizen acknowledges that they've been right in the past, and wrong in the past.
Then, the citizen must admit that there are such things as facts.
Then...

lord have mercy.

This could take a while...