Two issues seem to be blurred in this discussion - are Americans 
unintelligent, and are Americans ideologically gullible?  Writing from 
Europe, I'd say no to both.  

Ideological suckers can be pretty smart.  There's nothing inherently 
'clever' about rejecting mass culture and popular ideology.  Most of 
the smartest people that I've known have been mainstream in taste and politics. If you don't like the mainstream, you're going to have to 
convince people that you can offer something better.

It's really desparate when the left resorts to condemning the people as stupid when they don't join the revolution.  And there are plenty of arguments along the same lines in Europe.  A popular explanation of
Thatcherism was that it was 'popular authoritarianism' - it was popular 
because it appealed to the base authoritarian instincts of the people.  
But at least if you establish that everyone else is stupid, you don't 
need to worry about any of that politics stuff and you can bask in your 
own superiority.

Wojtek's presentation was telling:
"Most people grab fast food for thought spoon-fed to them by the media and other sources instead of engaging in involved research of every political issue. " 
And who can blame them? People have jobs and lives.  If you think that 
people should question what is fed to them, then give them a reason to! If people are not questioning ideology, then that is not their fault - 
the onus is on the people who disagree to convince others. 

I agree with Thomas about the, well, stupidity of Europeans who have 
fallen behind America by just about every possible measure, but still 
claim to be smarter.  Don't pander to them!

--James Greenstein