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Andrew Romano's How Dumb Are We?

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Recommended: Advance and disadvantage of information literacy

Andrew Romano’s article “How dumb are we?” contradicts the idea that citizens at least know the basics about their country’s political system and state affairs. He describes how surveys reveal that many Americans lack a common understanding and knowledge of their domestic politics as well as foreign politics. Some of his main arguments explain why the Americans are less aware of their country’s politics than the Europeans are, e.g. the complexity of the American political system, the decentralized educational system and most importantly that Americans are ignorant, not stupid. Romano also empathizes that the Americans’ lack of knowledge poses a threat to the American society. Mr. Romano uses words with a negative connotation, when he describes the U.S.A.’s political system. “[…] our …show more content…

He both disassociates and associates himself with Americans by using certain pronouns. “For as long as they’ve existed, Americans have […]” (page 2, line 6). He disassociates himself from Americans by writing “they”, but at other times he writes “[…] like us” (page 2, line 14), thereby portraying himself as one of the Americans. Readers become more involved in the article, when words like “us” are used. Andrew Romano frequently quotes experts, e.g. “Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker” (page 2, line 25) and the sociologist Dalton Conley. The expert quotes make him seem more trustworthy and so do all the numbers and statistics in the article. He mainly uses logos, but does not write very argumentatively. The article’s main focus is not to convince people that the American ignorance is a problem, but to inform them that there is a problem, therefore it is an educational article, rather than argumentative. This is supported the last few lines of the article, where the writer admits to not knowing whether the Americans can get rid of their ignorance or not. Despite this he encourages the readers to “start searching for a cure” (page 4, line 80). Mr.

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